


Anemoia

by ProneToRelapse



Series: Together, or not at all [2]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Background Farlan/Jan, Background Isabel/Petra, Background Relationships, Blood and Injury, Canon-Typical Violence, Disabled Character, Established Relationship, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Character Death, Non-Binary Hange Zoë, Not Canon Compliant, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rating May Change, Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan Manga Spoilers, Teamwork, altered ages, altered timeline
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-22
Packaged: 2021-03-22 20:26:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 36,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30044247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProneToRelapse/pseuds/ProneToRelapse
Summary: noun, anemoia [ah-neh-moy-ah].Nostalgia for a time you've never known.First, the titans. Then, the world. That's the promise Eren and Levi have made to each other; the eradication of humanity's greatest enemy, her Hope and her Strength working side by side to turn the tide in a war that's already taken more from them than they can bear.The road ahead is long and fraught with dangers neither of them could have foreseen, but it's the path they're determined to take, in order to secure a future for themselves where they'll be happy, safe, and free.Together, or not at all.
Relationships: Levi Ackerman/Eren Yeager
Series: Together, or not at all [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2210010
Comments: 131
Kudos: 273





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome back! I say this because if you've happened across this fic without reading the prequel [Desiderium](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27767335/chapters/67972864), you're gonna be hella lost, my friend, so follow the link and read that one before you proceed!
> 
> To those of you returning to join me once again on another journey, hello! I'm super excited to get started, but a quick note before we begin: This will not follow the plot of the manga. From a certain point, events will be altered, adapted, and in others completely rewritten. I can't go into too much detail without dropping some major plot spoilers, but exercise caution if you're not caught up with the manga. I am essentially cherry-picking the parts I like and weaving my own plot into them. 
> 
> Trust me. There's a solid 87% chance that I know what I'm doing.
> 
> If you're still happy to continue knowing that, then welcome aboard!
> 
> It's gonna be one hell of a ride!

Reiner lunges for him and Eren can’t fight him off. Even at full strength he’d struggle, but the fight with Annie, Utgard castle, the ensuing brawl with Reiner in his armoured form, they’ve left Eren too weak to even defend himself, and as he raises his steaming, stunted and reforming arms to at least _try_ to fend Reiner off, he feels sick at his own weakness.

Ymir spits and struggles as Bertholdt pins her down, swearing violently and kicking with her own injured limbs, but the both of them are far too weak to put up much of a fight.

“We don’t have much gas,” Reiner says, smashing Eren’s face into the rough bark of the tree branch beneath them, propping a knee against his spine to keep him prone. “And there’s still an hour to sunset. I could probably change in about two, but I won’t be at full strength again for a while.”

“We don’t have a choice,” Bertholdt says. “Much longer and the scouts will be after us. It’s either risking it against titans or against the corps, Reiner, and I know which one I’d prefer.”

“Cowards!” Eren roars, words muffled and choked when Reiner shoves his head down harder. “Fucking cowards! Traitors!”

He’s ignored, continues to fight futilely, but what else can he do? He won’t go quietly, he won’t let them just carry him away to wherever the hell they want to take him, but there’s nothing he can do. He’s too injured, too exhausted to transform, but he’ll fight until his dying breath.

He was supposed to see the world.

He promised Levi he’d come back.

“Damn you,” Eren chokes out, closing his eyes tight against the hot tears that well up. “Fuck you, fuck _you_. Murderers. Traitors. You took _everything_ from me.”

“Shut him up,” Bertholdt says, sounding close to desperate. “Please.”

Reiner shifts against Eren’s back and he braces himself to be knocked out, calls Levi’s face into his mind in case he never wakes up again.

_I’m sorry._

“Wait!” Bertholdt cries. “I can’t- Reiner, _look!”_

“Is it the scouts?” Reiner’s gone from Eren’s back in an instant and he rolls hard to the side, dragging a painful breath into his lungs the moment Reiner releases him.

From here, he can just about see the far horizon, beyond which wall Rose lies, unreachable, and behind it the people Eren left behind, who he was taken from. Who he’ll never see again.

But there’s a figure fast approaching and Eren can’t push himself up on his ruined arms to get a better look, but the figure is huge, towering tall and sprinting towards them at incredible speed. Eren stares, eyes wide, and though he tries he can’t parse what it is he’s seeing, he just can’t fathom it.

“It’s Annie,” Bertholdt breathes. “My god, it’s Annie! Reiner, she can get us out of here, we’re saved!”

Annie… It’s not possible. The last time Eren saw her, she was being led away in chains by the MPs and left under Levi’s guard, awaiting execution following an interrogation. There’s no possible way she can be heading for them, no way she’d even know how to find them.

Was this part of their plan? Can’t be, Bertholdt and Reiner are too surprised by her appearance. Had she managed to escape Stohess? Obviously that’s the only explanation, and fear twists sharp in Eren’s gut at the implication. Just how many MPs has she killed to get away? What of Levi? She’d have needed to eliminate him to even have a chance of getting free.

They must have had a plan. The breach in wall Rose truly was a farce, planned by the three of them before they betrayed them all.

Which means… They’ve lost.

It’s over.

Eren can’t watch as Annie approaches, titanic form growing in size with every step she gets closer. She’s almost bent double, skinless form thrown into a flat-out sprint, arms pumping for momentum as she races across the plains like an arrow from a bow. Her arrival brings nothing but pain and Eren feels all the fight seep out of him in an instant. Even if he resists now, it’ll be for nothing. 

They’ve won and Eren has lost. Mikasa, Armin, Hanji… He’ll never know what happened to them. He’ll die never knowing if his friends are alright. Isabel and Farlan and Petra, they’ll all be waiting for them to come back, waiting and waiting and waiting until word reaches them of the scouts’ failure, of Eren’s failure, and there’s nothing he can do to make it better. He can’t change anything.

Annie’s almost upon them.

She stops, fifty feet out from the forest.

“What-” Reiner begins, but then Annie _roars_ , and the titans that have been clustered around the base of the trees since Eren woke up, begin to break away, to amble towards her as though summoned.

“Good call,” Reiner breathes. “God, I’ve never been so glad to see her in my life.”

Annie spreads her arms as though she’s welcoming the smaller titans, palms up like she’s about to stoop to embrace them.

But then two figures sprint down her arms from behind her head, paring blades glinting in the setting sun. Gear hooks release in tandem and dig deep into the branches Reiner and Bertholdt are standing on and, with a speed that defies all realms of physics, those two figures come spinning towards them with twin, echoing battle cries.

Eren’s heart nearly bursts at the sight of them.

Vicious and resplendent, Mikasa and Levi surge forward, armed and ready to _fight._


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YOU GUUUYYYYYYSSSSSS. 
> 
> You’re all so SWEET. Honestly seeing all the comments from you all being some variation of “LETS FUCKING GO” was fuckin’. Heartwarming. I hope you enjoy this ride so much, I can’t WAIT to share it with you!!
> 
> Love ya!

_Twelve hours earlier._

* * *

“Eren, you’re shaking,” Mikasa murmurs. She kneels beside him, drapes her own cloak about his shoulders, over his own, and even that isn’t enough to ease the trembling of his limbs.

“I’m not cold,” Eren mumbles through chattering teeth, though he pulls the cloak tighter around himself all the same. And it’s not chill that has him shivering so violently, it’s exhaustion; exhaustion and the tail end of a vicious adrenaline surge that hasn’t fully left his system since the battle for Stohess just yesterday.

They’re atop wall Rose, at a midpoint between Krolva and Trost, and there’s been no sign of a breach in the wall, no trace of an entry point to be found. They’d deployed yesterday, following the capture of the female titan in Stohess, after news had come that titans had been sighted within wall Rose. Eren’s group and Squad Hanji had travelled through the interior to pass through Ehrmich in an attempt to locate the breach and seal it, along with several detachments of wall garrison soldiers, who’ve scoured the entire breadth of wall Rose and so far reported no visible breach. It makes no sense, defies all explanation, and Eren’s utterly exhausted, having not slept at all in verging on thirty solid hours.

That’s not all, either.

On Hanji’s orders, they’d ridden at breakneck pace for Utgard castle, an abandoned keep in the shadow of the wall where they would have been able to devise a plan to seal the breach, if they’d encountered one. In their journey here, they encountered not a single wandering titan, to say nothing of the fact that there’s no breach to be seen, but once the castle had come into view, Eren’s worst nightmare had been realised.

They’d reached the castle, or - more accurately - the ruins of the castle. The plan to convene there had flown out the window when they’d found the 104th trapped by marauding titans, the entire veteran guard sent to watch over them having been wiped out, and Ymir’s own titan being savagely torn apart as she defended them.

Eren had known about her, but he still wasn’t prepared for the sight of that small, grotesque titan being disemboweled by its own kind. He’d yelled at Mikasa to move, to take down the titans ripping Ymir apart, seconds before he’d taken to his own gear and helped to dispatch the rest.

Quick, efficient titan kills. Utter, ruthless execution.

He’s too tired to even be proud.

“Rest, if you want,” Mikasa says. “You must be exhausted.”

“I’m alright,” Eren says, though they both know he’s lying through his teeth. He’s not, he’s badly shaken, both from the unforgiving journey and the battle with Annie before they’d left. Prior to that, he’d ridden through the night with Levi and Hanji’s squad to reach Stohess at dawn so they could prepare for the battle. It’s been so long since he’s eaten or slept that everything is beginning to blur alarmingly, and now that the adrenaline is beginning to seep out, he’s been left unbearably cold inside.

Hence the shivering.

“Eren,” Hanji says and he blinks up at them in quiet surprise. Mikasa wraps an arm around his shoulders when he sways back precariously. “Oh, you really don’t look right.”

“I’m fine,” Eren says again, though it takes him a good few seconds to open his eyes again after he blinks. “How can I help, section commander?”

Hanji frowns at him for a long moment. “Mikasa, be a dear and help tend to Christa? Poor thing’s awfully shaken.”

It’s a poorly veiled attempt at privacy and Mikasa grits her teeth about it, but she can’t defy a direct order so brazenly. Hanji’s good at masking outright orders behind politeness when they want to be delicate - a rare enough occasion to begin with - so though she clearly doesn’t want to, Mikasa moves away.

Once she’s gone, Hanji kneels down in front of Eren, hands him a field ration that they helpfully unwrap before he can make a clumsy attempt with his own shaking hands. He bites into it gratefully, not even caring that it tastes like cardboard oates that were once shown a drawing of a raspberry.

“Eren,” Hanji says seriously. “I know you’re tired but the situation is dire. Ymir… Did you know?”

Eren chokes down a mouthful of that horrifically dry ration bar, wheezes gratefully when Hanji unscrews the cap of their canteen and passes it to him. He downs a couple of swallows before coughing and wiping his mouth. “I knew. She touched me back at HQ.”

“When you had your seizure?”

The first and only time it’s happened. Eren and Ymir had been talking following a memorial service for the scouts they’d lost during the 57th recon mission past wall Rose. Neither he nor Ymir had been expecting it to happen, but they’d touch hands and the moment they’d made contact, memories not belonging to him had flooded Eren’s head. He still can’t make heads nor tails of what he’d seen, but he’d witnessed enough to know that Ymir had come from a place of fear and pain. He’d known then that she was like him, or if he hadn’t known for sure, he’d strongly suspected.

He hadn’t said anything at the time. Ymir had looked so afraid and he’d felt that fear as his own. He’d thought that, had their positions been reversed, if she’d discovered his own power that way, he’d have wanted her to stay quiet about it. Having experienced firsthand the cruelty of the MPs and the fear and distrust on people’s faces when his own power had been discovered, Eren hadn’t wanted that for her, had actively worked to hide the fact.

“I know I should have said something,” Eren says quietly. “But I couldn’t do that to her. If I’d thought she was a threat then yeah. But she was so afraid. I couldn’t… I just couldn’t.”

“I understand,” Hanji says. “I am absolutely furious with you as both superior officer and scientist. Like, you don’t even _know_ how angry I am that you kept this from me. But as your friend… I admire your integrity. Your loyalty to those you care for is staggering.”

Eren accepts that with a tilt of his head. “Is she…?”

Hanji sighs. “She’s in a bad way, Eren. She’s reforming her intestines as we speak. One of the titans took a rather large chunk out of her side. She’s breathing and feverish, but that’s mostly due to the steam. We have her bandaged and as stable as we can get her without access to a proper medic, but the rest depends on her.”

Eren nods slowly because anything more energetic will probably make him vomit. “Well, thank you. I know you’ve done all you can.”

“Of course,” Hanji says, patting his shoulder. “But I hope you’re ready for your punishment now.”

Eren sighs. “Yeah, go on.”

Hanji shifts, plopping down on their backside and crossing their legs. They slip their trusty, battered notebook from their breast pocket and flick to a new page, slipping a pencil out from its holder inside the spine. “What happened when she touched you?”

Taking another fortifying bite from the ration bar, Eren launches into the best explanation he can while his mind is so foggy from exhaustion. He recounts how Ymir had reached to shake his hand, how his mind had sparked with energy similarly to how it feels when he calls his titan. He tells Hanji about the memories that had flooded his mind, though he’s careful to remain vague about what he’d actually seen. They aren’t his secrets to share, after all, and he’ll only pass them on if the worst comes to pass and Ymir doesn’t survive her regeneration.

The only thing he does pass on, however, is something that’s been troubling him since that odd day and its strange occurrence.

“She knows my dad,” Eren says. “Or- knew him, I guess. I saw him in her memories. Younger, but… It was definitely him. He looked about my age? Maybe a few years older? Which… I don’t understand.”

Hanji scribbles frantically. “It’s like being given a puzzle with half the pieces and still being expected to create a perfect picture,” they say, brow furrowed. “All we have are scraps that don’t seem to fit together, but I’ll be damned if I’ll let that stop me from hypothesising. God, I hope that basement has the answers we’re looking for.”

Eren reaches up a hand to grasp the key beneath his shirt, the way he always does when he’s anxious or stressed. His fist closes around nothing but fabric, however, and he remembers belatedly that he doesn’t have the key with him, for the first time in eight years.

He’d left it with Levi before they’d parted in Stohess. A promise that he’d come back.

“What’s the current hypothesis?” Eren asks to distract himself from the pang of homesickness that follows the thought of Levi.

“Hypotheses,” Hanji corrects. “I have many. But one keeps coming back to me and I think it’s the one with the highest possibility of being correct. I think - and bear in mind that this is subject to change because we know painfully little - that Ymir and your father may come from the same place. Somewhere beyond the walls. And it’s likely that Annie Leonhardt and the colossal and armoured titans do, too. It makes sense, explains why they destroyed the wall in Shiganshina. The titans did it to get in.”

“That’s when Ymir got in,” Eren murmurs. “I saw it in her memories. She snuck inside during the commotion. Managed to get to the interior. But what about my dad? He was already inside before Shiganshina fell. Had been for years.”

Hanji blinks. “Oh, lord, you don’t know.”

“With all due respect, section commander, I think we’ve long since established that I know fuck all about any of this.”

Hanji chuckles softly. “Well, yes, but none of us really have any idea what’s going on, do we? Hopefully once we return Levi will have managed to get something out of our unwilling guest, though I’m not hopeful. Of all the rotten luck, a wall breach _just_ as I got my hands on a proper titan shifter to experiment on.”

“I feel like I should be insulted?” Eren says. “Am I not a proper titan shifter?”

“Of course not!” Hanji cries. “You’re _Eren_. I’m talking about a titan shifter I can experiment on without worrying about causing any lasting damage. We love you, Leonhardt isn’t one of us. Whatever happens to her isn’t our concern.”

It’s chilling to hear the concept put so bluntly like that and Eren feels a little nauseous about it. Annie might not mean anything to Hanji or any of the other scouts, but she was a cadet with Eren and the rest of the 104th. The idea of experimenting on her, treating her cruelly, makes him feel viscerally sick.

“Well, here’s hoping Levi can get something out of her,” Eren murmurs, taking a long drink of water to try and quell the nausea. “If not, she dies.”

“Such a waste,” Hanji says, shaking their head.

“Section commander, I really don’t think I like this side of you.”

“Because you’re a sweetheart,” Hanji says. “But I’ve lost too many comrades to titans, Eren. My compassion was wiped away a long time ago. All that’s left is scientific curiosity, an ambiguously grey set of morals, and a hatred of titans so deep I can barely sleep at night because of it.”

“I understand _that_ ,” Eren says. “I just… Don’t like the idea of torturing Annie and calling it research.”

“Don’t think about it, then,” Hanji says dismissively. “The lengths I’ll go to for answers aren’t your concern, Eren. If ignorance will keep you happy, then live in it, by all means. Leave the dirty work to me.”

Eren decides to leave it at that, for his own sanity and peace of mind. Also because if they say any more on the subject, his high opinion of Hanji will vanish down the drain and never rise again.

“What did you mean when you said I didn’t know?” Eren asks, grasping frantically for any sort of segue. “What don’t I know in this situation?”

Hani flicks to a previous page in their notebook. “I spoke to Erwin shortly after your trial, before we joined you at the new HQ. Pyxis had some very interesting information to pass on regarding your father, information that he’d received in turn from your old CO when you were a cadet.”

“Shadis?” Eren asks, startled. “What the hell did he know about my dad?”

“They were old friends, allegedly,” Hanji says, dragging a finger down the page. “Yes, Pyxis mentioned that your father was found outside the walls, confused and unaware of anything except his name and his profession as a doctor. He was arrested, of course, but Shadis lobbied for his release citing that he was likely suffering from some form of amnesia and thus didn’t know the law.”

Eren hears Hanji’s explanation distantly, as though from somewhere far away, and the finer points of it are lost to him because he’s having trouble getting past the fact that his father came from _outside the walls_. He’d never told Eren, likely never even told his mother, but Shadis had known and kept silent, had never revealed such a crucial details until Grisha’s own son had been put on trial for treason.

“He’s a traitor,” Eren says faintly, nausea rising in burning wave up his throat. “All this time-”

“Eren, _no_ ,” Hanji says firmly. “We don’t know that. We don’t know where he came from or what his reasons were. And as for his time in the walls, he only ever did good. Well… Aside from what he did to you when he gave you this power. But even that we don’t know for sure that he did treasonously. We don’t have all the information, so don’t go jumping to conclusions. Leave that to me, I’m good at it. Of course, if we get to the basement and find out that he _is_ a traitor, you have my full and free permission to absolutely lose it.”

“This is insane,” Eren mutters, cradling his head. “I don’t know _anything_ about my own father. I don’t know where he came from, what he was planning- What if he-”

Hanji flicks him hard on the nose. “Bad. Stop it, Eren. Baseless conjecture will only upset you. Leave the hypothesising to me, okay?”

“But-”

 _”Eren,”_ Hanji says firmly. “I mean it. I know it’s hard, but focus on the basement, okay? I truly believe that the answers lie within it. That’s the only thing we can really be sure of, if we take your father’s sincerity as genuine. He was desperate for you to reach it, which means it _must_ contain something we can use. Just focus on that, okay?”

“...Okay,” Eren says, exhaling shakily. “I will. Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Hanji says, waving him off. “The situation is… strange. I’d be surprised if you weren’t confused and stressed, honestly. But as someone who cares about you, it’s my duty to stop you from agonising over every possibility before you hurt yourself. If Levi were here he’d… I don’t know, smack you round the head? Which seems a little mean, but that’s him all over, really. Little and mean.”

Eren huffs a soft laugh. “You understand that I can’t agree with you on principle?”

“Well, we’ll just keep that as our little secret.”

* * *

The 104th all seem to be in varying degrees of shock, from Connie who keeps wringing his hands and pacing, to Christa who’s bent over Ymir with tears flowing freely down her cheeks. It’s gotten to the point where Eren is far too tired to sleep, has verged ever so slightly into manically wired territory, but until they receive word from the wall garrison that they’ve located the breach, there’s not a lot he can do. He can rest on the ride back to Stohess, he reasons. Either that, or he’ll just pass out once his body is tired enough. One of the two, he’s not particularly fussed which.

So rather than take active care of himself - Mikasa’s disapproving glare going by thoroughly ignored - Eren takes himself over to Christa, kneels in front of her on Ymir’s other side without being noticed at all. He waits for a moment, watches Christa dab feverish sweat from Ymir’s flushed face, then gently reaches for her hands and catches them tightly between his own. She looks up at him, startled, but doesn’t pull away.

“Hey,” Eren says softly. “Are you hurt?”

“No, I-“ She takes a sharp breath, shakes her head. “I’m alright. I just-“

“It’s okay. Bit of a shock, huh?”

She smiles thinly through her tears. “A little. I understand why she didn’t tell me, though.”

“I’m sure she wanted to. It’s not really something that comes up in everyday conversation, though, is it? “Oh, by the way, honey-“”

Christa manages a tearful laugh, dabs at her cheeks with her sleeve. “I just… I want her to be okay.”

“Mind if I take a look? I’m only a doctor’s son, but I’m pretty good with titan injuries.”

“If you don’t mind,” Christa says, looking a strange sort of relieved. “They wouldn’t let me see, but I don’t think bandaging it will do much good.”

“Mm, maybe not. Best thing is to let the steam out. I don’t know why, but it helps.” Carefully, Eren peels back the sodden bandages on Ymir’s right side. The wound is a ghastly one, but even to Eren’s untrained eyes it’s just wide, not deep, which is bad enough but the titan steam is already doing its job. Her wound is no longer as grievous as it had been when they’d cut her from her titan, has partially healed over already. She’s doing remarkably well, all things considered.

“Looks good,” Eren declares. “And I’m not just saying that. You know me well enough to know I’m physically incapable of being delicate.”

Christa’s next smile is a lot more genuine. “Thank you, Eren. I’m glad you’re here.”

“Me, too. We’ll get this mess straightened out. I promise I’m on her side in this. I’ll fight for her. The scouts won’t just let her get taken away. It won’t be like it was with me, they won’t put her through a trial. If we can swing it, they’ll probably keep this under wraps for as long as they can, but I promise I’ll vouch that she’s not a traitor. I saw enough of her memories to know that much.”

“Is that what that was?” Christa asks. “She wouldn’t talk about it, I didn’t want to push her, but… I was worried.”

“Promise it was harmless,” Eren says. “I know it must have looked terrifying, but we didn’t hurt each other. I guess it was just… Our titans’ way of saying hello? Maybe? We don’t know a lot about it, but… I guess we’ll find out when she’s better.” Eren grimaces. “If it went both ways, I dread to think of what memories of mine she saw. I was a real dumb kid.”

Christa’s laugh is soft and delicate, and Eren shrugs off Mikasa’s spare cloak from around his own shoulders to drape around Christa’s. He knows Mikasa won’t mind.

“Hey,” he says, fastening the clasp for her. “Look, I won’t go into detail because it’s none of my business but… Ymir’s memories… She loves you so much. This isn’t going to be enough to take her down. She’ll pull through. Because she has you waiting for her.”

Christa sniffles, leans over to wrap Eren into a tight hug. He pats her back somewhat awkwardly for a moment before wrapping his arms around her as best he can, allowing her to take whatever comfort she can from the embrace. She pulls back after a moment and he’s pleased to see that her tears have stopped, though her smile is still wobbly at the edges, it’s much more genuine.

“You should sleep,” she tells him. “You look exhausted.”

“Yeah, I will in a bit. Too anxious for news. But don’t worry about me, you need some rest, too. You’ve had a rough couple days.”

“So have you.”

“We’re just going round in circles now. I’ll rest if you do, deal?”

“Deal.”

Checking in with Connie and Sasha is a lot less emotionally fraught. They’re desperately concerned for Ymir’s welfare, and though he wishes his friends weren’t so upset, he’s glad to see that they’re not harbouring any visible resentment toward her for deceiving them. Eren wonders if it was different when his own power was discovered, if they distrusted him immediately and had to see him prove his allegiance by plugging Trost’s breach, or if they trusted him enough as a comrade and friend to believe him loyal.

He doesn’t really want to know the answer. They trust him now and that’s all that matters.

“It was horrifying,” Sasha says, hugging her knees to her chest. “Watching Nanaba and Gelgar just slowly run out of gas while the titans kept coming… She screamed the entire time she was dying… I can still hear it…”

Okay, still mildly emotionally fraught, but Eren can handle that. Though the loss of Nanaba is a painful one. She was a good soldier, a little rough around the edges, but she judged everyone on their courage rather than skill or standing. She and Levi weren’t friends by any definition, but they had a tacit understanding and deep respect for one another, and her loss will hurt him, when he finds out.

“Still don’t know what happened to Mike,” Connie sniffs. “He peeled off early on to take down an abnormal. I’m hoping he joined up with the wall garrison and not… Well.”

“It’s Mike, I’m sure he’s fine,” Eren says. “He was, like, top dog before Levi joined. A single abnormal’s no match for him. I reckon he’ll arrive with the rest of the scouts. Won’t be long now.”

Connie hums distractedly, continues wringing his hands. He’s been doing it for so long his skin’s been rubbed raw. His shoulders are high, tense, and he’s got restless, anxious energy rolling off him in waves.

This goes beyond situational fear. Something has Eren’s most easygoing friend deeply unsettled.

“Connie?” Eren asks as gently as he can. “Is… Is something wrong? You seem… Honestly, you look about ten seconds away from a mental breakdown.”

“Yeah, no, sure,” Connie says, eyes fixed on a point far away to the south. “Whatever you want, man.”

Eren looks to Sasha for some sort of clarification. She looks away, hugging her knees tighter to her chest. Her concern for Connie is palpable, but so is her complete uncertainty of what to do to help him.

“We went back to our villages,” she says quietly. “My people had escaped, but a girl and her mother were left behind. I got the girl out, her mom was too badly wounded and we had a three meter after us. My people were lucky. Connie…” She takes a deep breath. “His entire village is gone.”

“Oh,” Eren says. “God, I… Shit, Connie, I’m so sorry.”

Connie doesn’t so much as twitch, so distracted he’s practically unreachable, though he’s standing only a few feet away. Eren places a hand on his shoulder, squeezes until Connie drags his eyes away from the south to look at him, and the expression on his face is a twist of grief Eren knows so well.

“I’m sorry,” Eren says. “About your village.”

“It’s alright,” Connie says, and the words ring hollow.

“No, it’s not-“

“Eren.” Connie grips the hand resting on his shoulder with surprising force. “I need it to be alright. Because if it’s not, I’m going to lose my mind. I can't… Not now. Later maybe, but I can’t think about it now.”

Eren understands that. “Whatever you need. You can talk to me and Armin and Mikasa anytime. We… We get it, you know?”

“Thanks,” Connie says dully. “I appreciate it. But nothing’s going to help right now, y’know? I just… I keep hearing that titan in my head and I can’t…”

“Wait, hearing it?” Eren stares. “A titan spoke to you?”

Connie’s nose wrinkles. “Maybe? I don’t know, it was… No one else heard anything, but I… There was a malformed titan crushing my house. Thin legs and arms, huge body and head. It was on its back, like, smashed through the thing. And it looked at me and… Eren, it looked like my mom. I swear I heard it say “welcome home”, and I know that’s crazy, but… I know what I saw.”

“That…” Eren doesn’t know what to say. On the one hand, he’d like nothing more to dismiss it as a stress-induced misunderstanding. But that’s not fair to Connie. The alternative, though, is far more sinister than Eren is prepared to deal with right now.

“I’ll talk to Hanji,” Eren says after a moment. “I’m sure they’d want to hear about it. It’s worth investigating, even if only because your village shouldn’t be abandoned without a care. We’ll find out what happened, so their memory can rest. Sound good?”

Connie clasps Eren’s arm. “That… Would be great. They deserve that, at least. I was hoping that maybe they got away, there weren’t any bodies around… But that’s not possible, is it?”

“We don’t know,” Eren says. “People do crazy things when their lives are in danger. There could be survivors. Once the call comes about the breach and we get it sealed up, we’ll help you find your people. Promise. We’ll figure out what happened.”

“Thanks, Eren.”

He leaves them, not even close to in peace, but hopefully more at ease than they had been before. Making the rounds, ensuring everyone is alright, is taking more of a toll on Eren than he’d like to admit. He’s not built for reassurances, he’s a fighter, and as exhausted as he is, it takes more energy than he’d expected to offer comfort to his distressed friends. He retreats for a moment, settling down by the wall’s edge, and is joined a moment later by Mikasa and Armin, who lean heavily against him on either side.

For a moment, they just sit together, taking comfort in each other’s presence. Armin looks about as exhausted as Eren feels, deep, dark circles carved out under his eyes, and Mikasa looks just as unbothered as always, or she would if Eren didn’t know her so well. She’s worried for Ymir, for their friends, for Eren who really should have taken the opportunity to rest when it arose, but she in turn knows him well enough to know that he can’t rest easy when there’s work to be done.

“I wonder how Levi’s getting on,” Armin says after a moment. “With Annie, I mean.”

“She won’t talk,” Mikasa says. “You know that as well as I do. It’s not a matter of how well he can question her, it’s whether or not he’s beheaded her already.”

Armin flinches and Eren sympathises entirely. It seems he’s not the only one that can’t reconcile the fact that Annie’s a traitor and has been all the time they’ve known each other. What he wouldn’t give to view the world as Mikasa sees it, so starkly in black and white. Existing in such murky shades of grey is maddening.

“We’ll see when we get back, I guess,” Eren says, aiming for diplomatic and probably missing hugely, but Armin looks grateful all the same. “I just want them to find this breach so we can leave. I’m shattered.”

“You should have been resting,” Armin says. “After Stohess, then this, is no surprise you’re exhausted. Can you even shift like this?”

“‘course I can,” Eren says. “Don’t worry about that, my titan’s always ready to go.”

“He’s right, though,” Mikasa says, elbowing him. “Your control over your titan suffers when you’re tired. We need to to be able to seal the breach and you can’t do that if you run around playing emotional support for everyone who looks a bit sad.”

“I’m just checking in!” Eren protests. “It’s not a bad thing to want to make sure my friends are alright, _Mikasa_.”

“Ordinarily, no,” Armin says. “But when you’re doing it as a distraction to stay out of your head, then the ulterior motive takes the altruism out of it.”

“Just attack me, why don’t you,” Eren mutters. “Right in broad daylight.” That's stretching it a bit, dawn has barely started to creep over the horizon. Eren has no idea what time it even is, what day it’s meant to be, has completely lost touch with the passage of time. He’ll be out of sorts until he can rest, hopefully kickstart his brain back into functioning again.

He’s _so_ tired.

“Look alive,” Mikasa says, pointing down the wall. “Looks like it’s time to move.”

“Oh, god,” Eren groans. “Help me up?”

Mikasa does, hauling him to his feet just as a detachment of wall garrison soldiers ascend the wall, panting from exertion, and among them is a face Eren hasn’t seen in years.

“Hannes!”

Hanji and Moblit jog forward to join them, reaching their group as Eren holds out a hand to help Hannes climb over the edge of the wall. Hannes waves them off while he gets his breath back, claps Eren on the shoulder in greeting, before shaking his head.

“There’s no breach,” he says and they all share wide-eyed looks in stunned silence. “We’ve had teams scouring the entire breadth of the wall, there’s no entry point to be found. The titans inside are so far apart we’ve had no trouble picking them off, but that doesn’t explain how they got in.”

Hanji looks torn between jubilation and horror and Eren knows them well enough by now to understand why. It’s the kind of puzzle they live for, regardless of how horrifying the subject matter may be. Titans inside the wall with no entry point? How’d they get there? Where’d they come from? Questions Hanji will likely delight in puzzling over, but for the rest of them, the truth of the matter is far more terrifying.

“We ran detachments from Krolva and Trost,” Hannes continues. “All the way round until we joined up then doubled back, and there’s no sign of any breach. So unless the bastards have learned how to vault the walls, we’ve got a problem on our hands.”

“It makes no sense,” Armin murmurs. “Titans were sighted inside the walls, you said yourself that you encountered them, so how did they get in?”

“Useless to speculate here,” Hanji says. “I say we draw back to Trost district and wait on standby. I’ll get a message to Erwin and we’ll await further instructions. We can get Ymir proper medical attention in the city, too.” They clap their hands. “Alright, folks, move out!”

Eren moves to assist, is caught by the arm before he can and turns around to face Reiner, who smiles at him thinly.

“Eren,” he says, voice strained. “A word?”


	3. Chapter 3

“Annie, Annie, Annie,” Levi says, shaking his head slowly. “You’ve really gotten yourself into quite a bit of trouble, haven't you?”

The woman doesn’t answer, just continues to stare blankly at him, icy eyes carefully devoid of anything that might give her away. No pain, no fear, nothing. That, in itself, is not unexpected. She’s well-trained, that’s for sure, and though her silence is frustrating, it tells Levi everything he needs to know and more.

“I have to congratulate you,” he continues, crossing his legs lazily, ankle propped atop his knee. “You really did a number on our ranks. I’ve never seen such meticulous butchering. And I’ve seen some shit in my time. You held up against me, and that’s nothing to scoff at. I’m impressed.”

Nothing. It would bother him a hell of a lot more if he’d gone into this with the expectation that he’d be able to get anything out of her, but he hasn’t. This is just a formality, a polite little rest stop before they execute her and move on. Levi’s not here to interrogate her. He’s here to gloat.

“I know less about titans than I’d like,” Levi says, leaning back in his chair. “But even with knowing so little, I know enough to kill them. But you? That’s going to be an interesting little discovery. I might take my time. See how many times I can cut your limbs off before you stop regenerating. Or I could just hand you over to the MPs. Don’t think I will, though. You’ve killed enough of my people that this has become personal. I’m going to take my time and I’m going to enjoy it.”

“You’re terrible at this,” Leonhardt finally says, monotone. “You’ve never interrogated anyone in your life, have you?”

“Oho, she speaks.” Levi inclines his head. “And yeah, I have. I’m not interrogating you, though. There’s nothing you can say that I care enough about to bargain for. They really chose badly when they sent me down here. You can beg for your life, but I’m not the kind of guy who gets moved to mercy. So you’re shit outta luck, I’m afraid. I want you dead. And there’s nothing you can do to save your life.”

Leonhardt looks up at him. “So what is this? Gloating?”

“Yes.” Levi nods. “That’s exactly what this is. You catch on quick.”

“That’s a bit cruel, don’t you think?”

“I’m hoping so,” Levi says. “Wouldn’t enjoy it as much if it wasn’t. Tell you what, though. Since this is going to be your last interaction with another person, I’ll humour you. But we’re going to do this a bit differently. Because I don’t know you, I don’t care to. Far as I’m concerned, you’re the enemy, and I don’t make bargains with traitors. But I am curious. You must have been… What, ten? Eleven? When you snuck into wall Maria? That’s pretty young for a soldier, isn’t it? What kind of fucked up place did you come from that had you trained as a killer before you’d even hit puberty?”

“I was an early bloomer,” Leonhardt deadpans. “Got a head start on development.”

“Yeah? That’s fucked up. That how it works where you come from? “Old enough to menstruate, old enough to die”?” Levi shakes his head. “Sick, isn’t it? The lengths people will go to in order to find lives to sacrifice for their cause? We’re not exactly blameless ourselves. Though I’d argue that the reason we’ve gone so far is your fault. We’ve had a century of war to warp us. Which is all your doing, isn’t it?”

“You really don’t know as much as you think you do,” Leonhardt murmurs. “It’s almost amusing.”

“Laugh if you want,” Levi tells her. “I won’t judge. I’m literally just waiting for the moment I’m allowed to behead you. I told you I don’t know shit about titan physiology, but I’ve never met a creature that could withstand getting their head popped off. I think it’ll work for you and I’m _very_ eager to try it.”

“What’s stopping you?”

Levi pretends to consider this. “I’m trying to wait long enough to convince them I interrogated you. Don’t tell anyone I’m disobeying orders, okay? I’m getting enough grief as it is.”

Leomhardt’s eyes narrow. “I want to talk to Eren.”

Levi laughs, a harsh, grating sound. “You’re not getting anywhere near him. Do you think I’m an idiot? We know what you’re after, and I’m not letting him within fifty meters of you. Besides, you’re shit out of luck. He’s not here. They’ve all gone off to go patch the new hole your comrades kicked through the wall.”

Something flickers in Leonhardt’s eyes. “You really should be more careful about what information you give out so freely. It betrays you easily. You’re a liar, Captain Levi.”

“Am I?” Levi smiles faintly. “Interesting. So there really isn’t a breach? Well, that’s good to know.”

Leonhardt scowls. It’s the first display of emotion Levi’s seen from her and suddenly he’s a lot more interested in what she might have to say. Not enough to spare her life, but more for curiosity’s sake.

“It seemed a bit too neat,” Levi continues. “The wall gets breached just as we captured you? Obviously we assumed your cohorts were moving to spring you. But it’s nice to know that’s not the case. Will they care, do you think? Or are you three supposed to abandon each other if you get caught?”

“I’m not telling you anything,” Leonhardt says.

“Okay.” Levi shrugs. “Well, tell you what. I’m invested now, so I think I’ll just… Spitball. Tell me if I’m wrong. Or don’t, I really couldn’t care less. There’s no way you’re getting out of this alive, so just sit there and look bored, okay? Good, you’ve got it.

“I think you’re scared,” Levi says. “I think getting captured was so far beyond what should have happened that you don’t know what to do. It should never have been in the realm of possible. Group of idiots with swords against a titan? No contest, right? But here you are, no way out, no one coming to save you, and your last ditch attempt at saving yourself got prevented before you could get away.” He glances at her leg, covered from the knee down in clear, glittering crystal. “That was meant to cover your whole body, wasn’t it? Hardened titan skin protecting you from us until help came. Don’t answer if I’m right.”

Silence.

“Good to know. Now, I don’t really care where you’ve come from. Judging from context clues, it’s a pretty shitty place, can’t imagine you’d want to go back. But you do, don’t you? Even though they turned you into a soldier likely before you could even properly walk, you want to go back. You got family there? People who’ll miss you when you don’t come home?”

“You don’t know anything,” Leonhardt says. “It’s embarrassing.”

“Didn't ask, shut your face.” Levi draws his knife from inside his boot, wiggles it between his fingers. “I could cut your tongue out, if that would help? Honestly, I had no idea you’d be this talkative. It’s incredibly irritating.”

“So you don’t want me to talk?”

“Not in the slightest. I told you, I don’t care what you have to say. I don’t care if you come out with the secrets of the universe, you’re not leaving this cell alive. The others, yeah, they want information. But I don’t. I want to collect on the blood price you owe me. You’ve killed too many people for me to just overlook it. I don’t care what your reasons are. I’ll see you dead before the day is out, don’t you worry. You just sit there and think about why you’re so loyal to the people who put you here.”

“You put me here,” Leonhardt says. “I hold no loyalty to you.”

“Did we, though? I guess so. But only because you decided it would be a good idea to invade us. So this really is your fault. Because if you’d just stayed outside the walls like a good little titan, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

“You don’t-“

“Know anything. I get it. Fuck, you’re annoying.” Levi twirls the blade between his fingers, more to calm himself than any attempt at intimidation. “Look, Annie, I really don’t care. I just don’t. I’m waiting to kill you and that’s all there is. I’m just feeling chatty because sitting in a claustrophobic cell with you really isn’t how I saw my day going.”

“You’ve already established yourself as a liar, Captain,” Leonhardt says, voice lilting and falsely sweet. “So forgive me if I don’t take your word for it. I know how valuable I am.”

Levi smiles. “Oh, Annie. It is my genuine pleasure to tell you that you’re worth _nothing_.”

That false smile slips right off her face. Levi almost purrs with satisfaction Almost.

“We have other ways of moving forward,” Levi says. “And none of them require you. We’ve got two other titans to choose from. Plus an extra gambit you didn’t forsee. Or maybe you did. I have to wonder. Eren was your target, but obviously we don’t know why. Though I’m pretty sure it’s something to do with this.”

He holds up the key, a gamble, and the light from the lone lantern glints off the metal. There’s no recognition in Leonhardt’s eyes, not even the slightest spark, so Levi can safely assume that, for all his flaws, Grisha Jaeger was not an all out traitor.

“I don’t know what that is,” Leonhardt says.

“And you wouldn’t tell me if you did, I get it.” Levi slips the key back under his shirt. “But I appreciate your honesty all the same. You’re surprisingly cooperative, so thanks. But it’s not going to get you anywhere.”

“Then why capture me at all?”

“Are you stupid? That’s a genuine question, by the way.” Leonhardt just looks at him. “Okay, so that’s a yes. Obviously we couldn’t just let you wander around unchecked. You killed dozens of us the last time we did that, so obviously we wouldn’t risk it.

“You’re a liability. That’s all. You can’t bargain for your life because it’s worth nothing to us. There’s nothing you can tell us that we can’t find out elsewhere. You’ve got nothing, you know nothing. And I’m perfectly happy to sit here until an acceptable amount of time has passed so I can kill you painfully and without remorse.”

Leonhardt lifts her head and smiles. It’s the kind of smile that precedes an ace, slipped out from one’s sleeve and offered as a final move to ensure a win. But no matter what Annie offers, Levi is set on ending her life. There’s truly nothing she can offer that will change his mind.

“When did Eren receive his power?”

“Why do you care?”

“I don’t,” Leonhardt says. “Call it professional curiosity. I just wondered because if it was before wall Maria fell… Well, he’s not going to be a problem for me much longer. It stings, but I’d have liked to outlive him.”

“Talk straight or I’ll saw your arm off. I’ve only got this teensy little blade, so it’ll hurt.”

“After Shiganshina fell, probably,” Leonhardt continues like Levi hasn’t spoken. “Oh, that’s so sad. Just when things were finally looking up for you. That’s… what, eight years? With the power?” She tuts, shaking her head. “Such a shame.”

“Does this tactic normally work for you?” Levi asks. “Because I’m really not interested.”

“No?”

“Really no. I told you, Annie, you’ve got nothing. I’m really going to enjoy taking your head off.”

“You won’t,” Leonhardt says. “I know you won’t.”

“Enjoy it? I promise you I will.”

“You won’t _kill_ me,” Leonhardt continues. “You wouldn’t be down here if you didn’t want me to talk.”

“Alright, listen,” Levi snaps. “There is no one here but me. The scouts are gone, the MPs are scrambling to prepare for an influx of refugees because they think the wall’s been kicked in. Currently, my entire team and my Commander are out there looking for the breach. They’ve left me here with you and that’s probably the stupidest thing they could’ve done. Because I _don’t care_ what you know. You killed my squad. You wounded my sister. You nearly killed Eren. I am not - and it is _so_ important that you understand this - I am not letting you live. So you may be useful. You may be willing to talk if we strike the right bargain. But you’re speaking to someone who doesn’t have a shred of mercy inside him.”

“You’re bluffing.”

“I assure you I’m not. But wait and see. It’ll be more fun for me, I’ll get to watch the smugness leave your eyes right before I take your head off. God, that shit’ll fuel me for weeks.”

The question is, will Leonhardt prove to be useful before Levi kills her? He’s made up his mind and he won’t budge, not about this. But he’d like at least one small piece of information to offer up. Her death will be a waste, but it’s one Levi is perfectly happy to live with.

“It is a shame though,” Levi murmurs. “I can’t deny that you’re skilled. It’ll be a shame for your people to lose you. At least, I’m assuming it will be. They sent you here after all. Tender brat of ten. Can’t have cared that much.”

“You don’t know anything.”

“Nope. Not a thing. And I absolutely could not care less.”

He’s not quite sure how to communicate it any more effectively. Today will end with Leonhardt’s death and there’s no way out of it for her. She can call his bluff if she wants, but if she does then she’ll just be the one burned when she realises he’s not bluffing at all. It’s of no consequence to Levi. As long as he gets to end her life, he’ll be content.

For Eld. For Oruo. For Gunther. For the scouts who tried so valiantly to stop her from taking Eren and lost their lives in the process.

Whatever her reasons, they don’t fucking matter. She is the enemy and Levi will have retribution.

“Did it ever bother you?” Levi asks before he can stop himself. “Any of it? What are you, eighteen? You’ve got so much blood on your hands. For what? What could possibly have been worth it?”

Leonhardt lowers her head and Levi considers stamping on the back of it just to get some sort of reaction from her. Speech or pain, he’s not fussed which one he gets, but pain is slightly more preferable.

She speaks before he can get to his feet, voice low, barely above a whisper.

“I decided a long time ago that no life was worth more than my own.”

“A creed that I’d respect in any other circumstance,” Levi says. “But you didn’t _have_ to come here and start killing us. Your colossal friend didn't _have_ to kick the gate in and wipe out ninety percent of Shiganshina in a single afternoon.”

“You don’t know anything,” Leonhardt says again, but this she hisses at the floor, shoulders hunching up to her ears, chains clattering loudly in the dark quiet of the cell. “You don’t know _anything_. We didn’t have a _choice_. Did _you_ have a choice? Of course you did. You could have stayed underground, crawling on your belly through filth. You didn’t _have_ to kill anyone, to fight your way to the surface. You could have just rolled over and _died_ and _that_ would have been your choice.”

She raises her head and for the first time, Levi sees fear in her eyes. Fear, anger, and a hell of a lot of pain.

“We had a choice,” she says. “If you could even call it that. We were children. We were _children_. It was obey or die, so was it really a choice? What child could resist that sort of ultimatum? Was I supposed to _protest_? Was I supposed to take a grand moral stand at the age of _six_?

“So no, I don’t think about it. I don’t think about _any_ of the lives I’ve taken. Because every life I take ensures that I can extend mine just a little bit longer. But it doesn’t fucking _matter_ , because even if you don’t kill me, even if I manage to get home, I have five years. I have five goddamn years and they’ll make me serve for those too. _That_ is the choice we were given. Fight, or die.”

“Wow,” Levi says after a long and painful pause. “That was… Something else. Did you come up with that on the spot? Because that was impressive. Really. And I have to thank you, Annie. Because you just saved us a hell of a lot of hassle.”

Leonhardt blinks, the haze of pain and distress lifting from her eyes, replaced by wary confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“” _We were kids_ ”? Really, I can’t thank you enough. You’ve just narrowed down our search significantly. Your comrades, the ones who broke in with you, must be of similar age. Which means they likely joined the cadet corps with you. Which _means_ that our suspects, whoever told you that Eren was in the left wing, where you oh so conveniently appeared once we’d passed the wall, are among a handful of people. Easy to narrow down.” His feigned sigh of contentment is truly a thing of theatrical artistry. “Oh, Annie. _Thank_ you. And now, as thanks, I _am_ going to kill you now.”

He’s only got his knife, but that’s all he needs. She’ll die screaming, messily, and he plans on making it hurt. She could shift, of course, but they’re too enclosed for her to do so without crippling herself. She could do it, just to take him with her, but he knows with assured certainty, that as much as she may present otherwise, she doesn’t have the stomach for it.

She draws back as he advances, recoiling as far as her chains will let her. Levi really has to hand it to her, she eyes his blade warily, but still with no fear. He really has no idea what makes her tick, which is why it’s probably a good thing that he’s not actively interrogating her.

“Feel free to scream,” Levi tells her, flipping the blade point up. Leonhardt scowls at him. Then, jaw set, she tilts her head up, offering her throat to him.

“Do it,” she says, eyes fixed on his. “There’s nothing you can do to me that even comes _close_ to what they’ll do if I return a failure.”

Levi’s blade stops an inch from her throat. Of all the things that could’ve stopped his knife, he sure as shit wasn’t expecting that. Struggling he could have handled. Screaming, sure, no one ever dies quietly when they know it’s coming. He’d half expected her to try and bite him, but offering herself up to his blade without a shred of fear?

Well, now.

Leonhardt stares up at him, breaths coming quick and sharp as adrenaline spikes through her body. Levi knows the signs. She might not be afraid, but biology is biology, and her body is afraid even if her mind is not. “Well? What are you waiting for? Lost your nerve?”

“Ballsy for a condemned prisoner, aren’t you?”

“Fuck you,” Leonhardt spits. “Fuck you and your judgement and your bastard walls. You want to kill me? Go ahead. Stop posturing and do it. But don’t stand there and tell me that if you were in my place, you wouldn’t have done the same thing. You'd have killed thousands if it kept you alive. You would. You _have_.”

“You’re wildly overestimating my kill count. I don’t stain my hands with the blood of the innocent. I’m not like you and your friends.”

“Ignorant pig,” Leonhardt spits. “You don’t know. And if I’m about to die, then I want to be the one to tell you. The titans you carve through? The ones you’ve made a name for yourself killing? They’re people. Once upon a time, they had lives, families. And you butcher them without mercy.”

People lie. To save their lives, they’ll lie and beg and plead. People will say anything to save their own skin, betray friends, loved ones, promise miracles and all manner of impossible things. Rarely does death ever make a person honest.

But there’s no lie in Leonhardt’s eyes. Just a vicious sense of victory, like she’s struck a blow Levi can’t counter.

And the statement shakes something within him, grips tight and wrenches painfully, threatens to bow his knees with horror and dread. But Levi’s lived through hell, come crawling out the other side. So the vicious words of a condemned woman are not enough to make him falter.

“What the fuck else would they be?”

Leonhardt’s eyes widen.

“Whatever the once were, they’ve lost their minds. Unless there’s a way to change them back, then death is a mercy, right? So why should I feel guilty for doing them the last kindness they’ll ever know? Did you _really_ think that would be enough to bring me down?”

Leonhardt closes her eyes. “No.”

Levi lowers his knife. He backs away. Leonhardt doesn’t open her eyes until he’s back in his chair, forearms braces against his knees. She looks confused, suspicious, but she slowly lowers her head, uncertain as to why she’s not currently bleeding out from a slit throat.

Honestly, Levi doesn’t quite know why either. She’s right there, she can’t stop him, there will never be a better chance for Levi to kill her. He doesn’t care about anything she has to say. She’s a soldier, a killer, and by her own admission feels no remorse for the lives she’s taken.

But she’s right. In her position, Levi would have done the _exact same thing_.

“Where you come from,” Levi says. “This… place. Wherever it is. Do you have slums?”

Leonhardt’s eyes narrow suspiciously. “Why?”

“Look, I’m not asking for military secrets here. I don’t want to know about your grand master plan or whatever the fuck. Talk or die. There’s a brand new choice for you. Pick wisely, I’m not a patient man.”

“...We have slums,” Leonhardt says after a moment. “We have walls, too. Not as impressive as yours, but they’re enough. Sometimes.”

“You keep titans out, too?”

Leonhardt hesitates for a moment. “Yes,” she finally says.

“So you don’t work with them?”

“No. They’re… They’re as much our enemy as they are yours, I suppose.”

“Weird to have that in common.”

“You won’t get anything out of me,” Leonhardt says. “Nothing more. I won’t talk about it.”

“Loyalty to the homeland?”

Leonhardt’s lip curls. “Hardly. But I want to go home. And you’re in my way.”

“That I am,” Levi says, dragging a hand wearily down his face. “You know I can’t let you go.”

“I know.”

“I don’t want to.”

“I know.”

“We want to leave the walls,” Levi says. “We want our freedom. My only real question is… If we get out there. _When_ we get out there… Are your people going to be a problem for us?”

“Yes,” Leonhardt says without hesitation. “You’ve no idea how much they hate you all. It’s shaped their entire way of life. You’re chosen ones, safe behind your walls. The resentment runs deep. If you manage to get out… It’ll be an all out war.”

Levi nods slowly. “A war we’ll lose?”

“I don’t know.” It’s more honesty than he was expecting to get. “But it’s a war I want no part in. I never did. But I didn’t have a choice. None of us did.”

Another thing they have in common. He doesn’t sympathise with traitors, but it can’t just be ignored. “What do you want, Annie?”

She looks up at him, surprised.

“If you could have anything. What would you ask for? To go home?”

“What is this? Going to grant the last wish of the condemned?”

“Not even slightly. I just want to know what someone like you wishes for, I suppose. “Know thy enemy”, and all that.”

“If I tell you, will you tell me something?”

“Maybe, if I think you deserve it. Depends on what you say. And that’s as much as you’re going to get. 

Leonhardt nods slowly. “Alright... Alright. I want… I want to see my father. And I want to live the few years I have left in peace. I want the titans wiped out. I want to know what it feels like to be safe.”

“You could have,” Levi says softly. “A promising career as an MP, you’re bright and skilled, they eat that shit up. You could have made a life for yourself here.”

“In five years?”

“You keep saying that. You that sure you know when you’re going to die? You could’ve lived until you were too wrinkly to see shit. Especially holed away safely in the interior. Nowhere safer.”

“I know how much time I have left,” Leonhardt murmurs. “We all do.”

”What’s that supposed to mean?”

Leonhardt swallows, shakes her head, and says no more.

Fine.

Levi looks at her for a long moment, warring silently but intensely with himself. He wants to kill her. He wants it so badly it’s almost a physical pain, but whose purpose will it serve? Do they stand to gain even a little bit from leaving Leonhardt alive? Can she be used? Erwin would be able to. He’d be able to worm his way inside her head, probably. Bring her round. She’s been away from wherever and whoever sent her here for nearly a decade, with likely no contact, no orders, no direction. Their hold on her, clearly already tenuous, has weakened. She says she wants to go home, but how much of that is the truth?

They can’t kill her. They can’t. And Levi hates that they can’t. She’s worth too much, she was fucking right. She’s a valuable resource and goddamn it, they’ve had a hundred years of cluelessness. It would be so stupid to get rid of her without at least trying to find out what she knows.

And why five years? Why is she so convinced that’s how long she has left? Levi has no clue and she’s not likely to tell him, but if five years is all she has, maybe they can strike some sort of accord.

Make a deal with the devil, as it were.

“What if I gave you those five years?” Levi asks. “If you’ll die either way, what if I promised you five years? Either you’re lying, or you’re telling the truth. The way I see it, either you snuff it in half a decade, or I come to collect like the grim fucking reaper. What if I gave you those five years? Would you fight for us?”

“No,” Leonhardt says. “Because I don’t want any part in this war. Yours or my people’s.”

It’s fair enough. Levi hadn’t really expected her to-

“But if there are really titans inside the walls,” Leonhardt continues, “but no breach, then the war’s already found you.” She smiles hollowly. “Because we took too long. We’ve been here for nearly ten years without any results. No proper command would let that go unpunished. It was only a matter of time before our superiors came to join the fight.”

“What are you saying?”

“If Eren’s ridden out to find and seal the breach, then he’s as good as theirs already. My _companions_ won’t let such an opportunity go to waste. Your ranks will be scrambled, separated. It’s the perfect opportunity. And if they’re together, you won’t be able to stop them.”

“So it was a trap?” Levi says, dread prickling down his spine. “This whole time?”

“Not ours,” Leonhardt says. “But yes. And it’s already been strung, you won’t make it out. There’s nothing you can do. It’s been hours since they rode out, Eren’s probably already been taken.”

“Well, thanks for the tip,” Levi says icily. “And you’ve just signed your own death warrant.”

“Can you give me five years?” Leonhardt asks as though Levi hasn’t spoken a word. “Can you promise me that?”

Can he? No. “Yes.”

“Then I’ll help you get him back,” Leonhardt says. “If you can give me five years, I’ll get him back. I’ll do that and no more. But you need to promise me five years of safety. No war, no titans. I don’t care if I spend the rest of my life under house arrest, but I want five years of peace.”

It’s beyond his authority to grant. He can’t give her a day, let alone five years, but if she’s telling even a fraction of the truth, then Eren is in very real danger. And Leonhardt may be many things, but she’s no outright liar.

“Deal,” Levi says.


	4. Chapter 4

“We need to go home.”

It’s a strange comment, one Eren honestly hadn’t been expecting, but he can’t blame Reiner for faltering now. Even the strongest of them, it seems, will eventually bow under stress. Eren can’t blame him, he’s always been the strongest of all of them, but after what the 104th have been through these past few hours, it’s no surprise that they’re feeling tested and tense enough to break.

“I know, I want to go home too,” Eren murmurs, reaching out to clasp Reiner’s arm, the one not caught in a sling. Bertholdt hovers anxiously at his friend’s shoulder and Eren offers them both the most reassuring smile he can muster. “And we can go now, didn't you hear? There’s no breach, we can go. Back to HQ, and we can figure out what to do next. We’re so close, you guys. It won’t be long and we can retake wall Maria.”

“I don’t give a _damn_ about wall Maria,” Reiner snaps viciously and Eren holds up his hands placatingly at the same time Bertholdt grips Reiner’s shoulders, expression twisting into something terrified.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Eren says, glancing between the two of them. “Listen, I know you’ve been through a lot but it’s over now, okay? We can go. So come on, let’s get going and we can leave all this behind us, yeah?”

“Listen to him, Reiner,” Bertholdt says, grimacing when Reiner shakes his hands off roughly. “ _Reiner_. Don’t do anything stupid. _Please_.”

“Eren,” Reiner says, gripping his arm tightly. Eren winces under the force of the grip, feels the burn of bruises forming beneath his skin, prompting a ripple of steam to hiss from his pores. Reiner stares at the tendrils that bleed through the fabric, expression morphing into something distraught. “We need to go home. Just… Just come with us, okay? It’s not far. It’s so close, we can leave now. You’ll come with us right?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“You need to come with us,” Reiner insists. “You need to. If you don’t, we’ll destroy more gates.”

“Des- What the _fuck_ , Reiner?”

Whatever they’ve been through, it’s hit Reiner hard. The collapse of the castle, Ymir’s injuries, her reveal as a titan, its hit hard and Reiner’s scrambling to parse it. That’s all this is. He’s stressed, verging on manically so, and he’s struggling to reconcile it all. That’s all this is. That’s all.

“Reiner, please,” Bertholdt says, shaking his friend by the shoulders. “Reiner, let him go. Come on, you need to let him go. Come back, okay? Come back to us.”

“Reiner,” Eren says, strained around a wince of pain as Reiner’s grip on his arm tightens. “Look, I know it’s been a rough couple hours. But you need to focus up, alright? You’re stressed, I get it, but it’s alright now. We’ll get back to Trost, get some food and some damn sleep, yeah? Come on, man, work with me here.”

He’s desperate to get through to Reiner, to push through the frenzied haze to reach the friend drowning beneath it all. He’s spent enough time of his own, mired in stress and pain and anguish, he knows how hard it can be to drag yourself out. Thankfully he’s never had to do it alone, and neither will Reiner, not while Eren’s here to help ground him.

“Come on,” Eren says softly. “Reiner, it’s alright. Let go of my arm, please?”

Slowly, Reiner’s grip relaxes. He steps back, eyes wide with horror, and with a hollow grunt of pain lets his head fall into his hand. Bertholdt flutters anxiously, looking like he can’t decide whether or not to get between Reiner and Eren. Eren shakes his head, smiles thinly, tries to show that it’s okay, that he’s not angry, that this isn’t going to escalate into a tense, vicious fight.

“I…” Reiner swallows. “I’m sorry, Eren. You’re right. You’re- Of course you’re right. I’m just… Stressed. It’s been a crazy few hours.”

Eren almost sags with relief. “Yeah, I know. It’s okay, I get it. Just come with me, we’ll get you down to the horses. You can sit in the wagon, get some rest. Everything’ll feel a bit more bearable after some rest.”

His mom used to swear by it. Rest and food soothe the worst of moods. And considering Eren spent the majority of his childhood being an absolute shit, she was always trying to get him to take a goddamn nap.

He’d give anything to be able to rest after a meal his mom had cooked. He doesn’t want to think about her now, but the memory refuses to be ignored. It flashes into his face, the softness of her smile and the lightness of her eyes, and Eren aches for what he’s lost.

“I know you want to go home,” Eren says gently. “I wish I could, too. But we’re _so_ close, Reiner. Rest up so we can make our move for wall Maria, yeah? I’d feel a hell of a lot better if I had you watching my back.”

“I can’t fight like this,” Reiner says, swaying alarmingly. Bertholdt reaches out to steady him, draws his hands back uselessly when Reiner shies away from him. “I’m not- I’ve gone _soft_. I’m not a soldier, I’m a goddamn warrior. I’ve been here too long.”

“Reiner,” Bertholdt says, low and anxious. “That’s enough.”

“No,” Reiner says, snaring the word out. “No, I’m sick of this. We’ve been here for years, surrounded by idiots, by _weaklings_. And it’s made us soft! We were just _kids_ , we didn’t know anything. Growing up around this _filth_. It’s made us _weak_!”

“Reiner, snap out of it!” Eren cries, concern and fear welling up his throat in a sickening burn. “The hell’s gotten into you?!”

Reiner’s snapped, it’s the only explanation, but there’s not much Eren can do to bring him back. He’s heard of instances like this, heard his father speak about patients that suffered with debilitating conditions that throw them back into the worst memories of harrowing events they’ve lived through. He described it as having trauma trapped at a single point in their brain, unable to process or move past it, forced to relive it in an endless loop. It’s like Reiner’s trapped inside his worst memories, spouting nonsense in his panic, lashing out against his will because his mind and body are fighting each other.

Eren has no idea how to help him.

“Come with us now,” Reiner says in a rush, urgent, desperate. “Come with us now and we won’t destroy the walls again.”

“Reiner, you’re sick,” Eren says. “You’re not well, please just come with me. Hanji can help, it’ll be alright. Just-“

“I’m not sick!” Reiner roars. Bertholdt flinches away and Eren can’t stop himself from taking his own startled step back, shocked by the sheer ferocity of Reiner’s anger. It’s like a switch has flipped, turned him into something else, something Eren doesn’t recognise at all.

He knows his friend is still in there, but he has no idea how to reach him.

“Okay!” Eren says. “I’ll come with you, just- Calm down, okay? God, breathe, it’s alright. I’ll come.”

“You will?” Reiner stares at him, eyes wide. “You’ll come?”

“Yeah, I just… Please stay calm. You’re injured, you shouldn’t over exert yourself.”

“Oh,” Reiner says, looking down at his arm. “Right, I can’t take you anywhere like this.” Slowly, he removes the sling from round his neck, peels away the bandages and Bertholdt looks about thirty seconds away from passing out, has gone sickeningly pale.

Reiner raises his arm, bears the vicious titan bite marks on his skin like a brand. They look deep, horrifically painful, and Eren is about to demand Reiner let him rebandage them, when steam begins to hiss from the open wounds, the skin rippling as it starts to knit back together.

Eren’s words die a death in his throat, the corpses of what he’d wanted to say lodging hard inside, choking him.

 _No_...

_Not them too…_

“Reiner!” Bertholdt cries. “Now?”

“Now,” Reiner growls as his arm reforms before Eren’s eyes. “We fight. And end this here. We have a duty. We should never have forgotten it. We fi-“

A singing flash of steel and a paring blade severs Reiner’s hand at the wrist, swiping through muscle and bone in a spray of blood that splatters across Eren’s face. The blade continues, lodges deep in Reiner’s neck, and in a whirl of fury, Mikasa moves away, swinging her remaining blade in a vicious arc that ends halfway into Bertholdt’s neck. She pushes Eren back, lunges for Bertholdt with a shuddering cry of rage that’s equal parts fury and grief, and as Eren stumbles back, all he can manage through his shock is one word, ripped out of him along with all the breath in his lungs.

 _”Move!”_ He cries at his sister, seconds before orange flickers of titanic energy ripple through Reiner and Bertholdt’s bodies.

If they call their titans, Eren will survive. Mikasa won’t. She needs to get away.

In a maelstrom of heat and light, bitter, burning steam and gale force winds, the colossal and the armoured titans emerge. The resulting explosion throws Eren from the wall like a cannonball to the gut, sends his body tumbling through the air in a dizzying whirl, and all he can think as he plummets towards the earth, too shocked to even attempt to reach for his gear triggers, is one single word.

_Why?_

A hand comes up to meet him, fingers curling around his body and catching him as he falls. Armoured fingers connected to an armoured hand, and Eren stares into a face that’s haunted his nightmares since he was ten years old and lost everything in the space of a single afternoon. The armoured titan’s white eyes blaze and it hurts to know that it’s Reiner staring out at him through them. But even that pain can’t reach Eren right now. He’s too shocked, too numb. Even as the armoured titan’s grip cracks his ribs, he can’t find it in himself to feel.

All this time… Annie… Bertholdt… Reiner. Eren had looked up to him, would have given anything in the world to be half as strong as the 104th’s resident big brother. Reiner taught him how to fight, how to stand strong when the whole world felt as though it was against him. He taught Eren how to defend himself. He encouraged him, fought with him, believed in him.

And it was all a lie.

And Bertholdt… Quiet, polite, _kind_ Bertholdt… Broke through Shiganshina’s outer gate. Killed the people Eren had grown up with, been raised by. He was the one who sent the debris flying that destroyed Eren’s home, crushed his mother’s legs so she couldn’t get away, trapped her beneath that beam of wood that Eren had been too weak to lift.

It was them. They did this. And they made him care for them, love them like brothers.

Eren bites into his hand before his mind conjures the conscious thought to do so. His teeth dig in deep, through skin and muscle, drawing so much blood that it slicks his teeth, coats his tongue, but then his titan answers his call, destroys Reiner’s hand as the form explodes, skin rippling and forming around Eren, cocooning him in the nape.

And they’re still falling.

But Eren has his titan’s fury roaring through him now, and there’s nothing that can stop him.

His fist connects with Reiner’s armoured jaw only a handful of seconds before they hit the ground, and though the impact jars Eren’s titan body violently, it doesn’t injure him enough to stop him for long. His leg breaks and one of his arms bends unnaturally, but he’s too angry, too irate to be held back. Steam hisses from his damaged limbs, limbs that ripple with healing energy and reform in only a few seconds, and then Eren is rolling to his feet, ready to face down the armoured titan.

This isn’t how he imagined it happening. In all his dreams, he’s facing down the armoured with the entirety of his squad at his back. A final, heroic battle for humanity, titan corpses littering the imaginary battlefield of his mind. He’s not supposed to be facing down a friend, with only squad Hanji to watch his back.

But they’re not even able to help. The colossal is towering over the wall, half formed rib cage cinched over the width of it, torso rising like a serpent as it strikes at them. Eren can’t spare them a thought, has to focus on Reiner. Because there’s no way this fight ends in his favour, even if he fights with everything in him.

The fight with Annie had nearly killed him, before he knew what to look for. Reiner’s armoured from head to toe, and he’s got strength Eren can’t hope to match. Eren’s blows likely won’t do a shred of damage, so he’s going to have to get creative.

He’s going to need to fight dirty.

Reiner lunges first and Eren has to dive to avoid being tackled into the wall. He rolls to his feet, leaving a crater in the dirt from the force of his dive, uses the momentum to throw himself forwards. Reiner spreads his arms, ready to grapple, to overpower, but Eren sinks low, skids cross the ground between Reiner’s legs. He doesn’t have a hope of toppling Reiner through brute force alone, he knows that from their days spent sparring hand-to-hand, and the memory stings.

 _Traitors_...

The bigger they are, though, the harder they fall, and Eren’s no idiot. If there’s one thing the three traitorous titans have given him, it’s the ability to fight and fight _well_. Through their own shortsightedness, they taught Eren how to fight like they do, how to counter the moves they’ll make, and though Eren’s at a severe disadvantage because of Reiner’s armour, that doesn’t mean he can’t hold his own.

_I looked up to you…_

And now Reiner’s unbalanced.

He tries to spin, pivots on one leg to whip round and guard against whatever attack Eren’s going to launch at him from behind. His arms raise, fists clenched, but Eren’s not trying to attack him, just unbalance him. If he can pin Reiner successfully, he has a strong suspicion he can put a crack in that fucker’s armour.

 _I’d have given anything to be half as strong as you. I looked_ up _to you_.

Eren surges up, wraps an arm around Reiner’s torso, locks a hand around his wrist so he’s got Reiner in a near chokehold. It’s simple enough, the movements almost automatic, and in his mind’s eye he can see that blisteringly hot summer day when Annie had used the exact same move to throw him.

Sweeping a leg behind Reiner’s, Eren launches all of his weight forward, sending Reiner crashing over backwards into the ground. The force of the impact shudders through the ground and steam hisses out from the gaps in Reiner’s armour.

_You took everything from me._

Eren doesn’t let up. Reiner tries desperately to roll them, to throw Eren off of him, but his armour is weighing him down. Grabbing a handful of cropped blonde hair, Eren’s titan wrenches Reiner’s head up, slams it into the ground with enough force to split his skull, were it not so well protected. It still serves a purpose, dazes Reiner into slackening his grip around Eren’s titan’s waist.

_I could scour the entire world and never find anyone as evil as you._

In a hand-to-hand fight, Eren stands no chance. But where Reiner’s titan excels in brute strength, Eren’s titan is built for agility, for combat, he can feel it in every thrum of his titan’s vicious intention, and he doesn’t fight against it this time. Controlling his titan is a constant battle to maintain his sense of self and an exertion of willpower of his titan’s. It’s a war he wages every time his titan materialises and not once, not since Trost, has Eren willingly let the titan take over.

_TRAITORS!_

He does so now. Passes everything over, lets his titan’s rage overwhelm and eclipse his own. The rush of fierce, bloodthirsty delight that rushes up to greet him is hot and deeply satisfied and Eren’s muted sensation within the nape is dulled to a near-terrifying point. There’s only a faint tendril of his consciousness left. The rest is unequivocally titan. He’s no longer in control, the titan has taken over, but for the first time since he came to possess this power, Eren is no longer afraid.

With a snarling roar, Eren’s titan pitches back, legs coming up to lock around Reiner’s neck in a vicious vice. Reiner growls, hands coming up to seize Eren’s thighs and pry him off, but he hasn’t got enough leverage. The angle’s wrong, he can’t get purchase on Eren’s skin, not through the armoured gauntlets he has for hands, and when his grip falters that’s all the opportunity Eren’s titan needs to roll them to the side, pinning Reiner to the ground beneath him.

He twists Reiner’s arm savagely in his grip, wrenches with an echoing roar.

Reiner’s armour cracks.

Eren’s titan _screams_.

With a crunching, sickening snap, Reiner’s arm is torn off in a spray of steam and blood. The arm is cruelly discarded, tossed away and ignored, and Eren’s titan scrambles away, a mocking, rumbling laugh hitching through his throat.

“Eren!”

Pressure in his shoulder. The titan turns, sees black hair, a streak of red, and then there’s a human in front of his face. _Attack_ his mind screams, but Eren’s consciousness flickers with recognition, breaches the surface of his titan’s rage with a gasp.

 _Sister_ , he cries and the titan coils back slightly. There’s no place for rage here and Eren scrambles to regain a foothold, to wrest back control of the titan he’s trapped inside.

Mikasa.

“Eren, get back to the wall!” Mikasa cries. “They’re trying to take you away, you _need_ to get back to the wall!”

Eren’s titan growls, resists with all its strength. Their opponent is down, injured, it would be so easy to destroy them, but Eren knows that’s not true. Even injured Reiner still possesses leagues more experience than Eren. What sort of training he and the others have, Eren doesn’t know, and that ignorance could kill him if he acts rashly.

To the wall, then. If Eren can escape, he wins. He has a promise to keep.

That’s enough for his titan and it slowly withdraws from Eren’s mind, placated for now and allowing him to regain full and total control. Eren hisses steam from his titan mouth and spreads his palms to let Mikasa drop into them. She looks up at him, eyes shining with relief and pride, and Eren cradles her close to his chest as he makes for the wall. He’s met at the base by Armin and Hanji, who drop onto either shoulder with a whir of wires.

“Good work!” Hanji praises, patting his cheek. “But we’re not in the clear yet. The colossal’s giving us trouble, we can’t get close to him.”

“Our rigs are useless,” Armin says. “He’s jetting off too much steam for us to get close. Acting like a blast furnace and maintaining his form just to keep us off of him.” He wipes a hand over his face. “Bertholdt has Ymir. I don’t think she’s dead, but unless we can wear him down, we won’t be able to get her back.

Eren growls.

“We’ve got two teams trying to wear him down, though” Hanji continues. “If we can get him to emit enough steam, we’ll be able to weaken him enough to try and get her out. You understand, right, Eren? We can’t take them alive. The time for capture has long since passed.”

 _Good_.

“We can’t beat them,” Mikasa says quickly. “Eren’s exhausted, he fought Annie not a full day ago. He won’t be able to hold them off long enough for us to kill them. We _need_ to escape.”

“They won’t just let us go,” Hanji says. “We’ll need to injure them enough to be able to get away at all. Eren.” They tug his earlobe. “Think you could snap his leg off with another of those holds?”

Eren looks at Reiner, hunched over and steaming. He growls softly and nods.

“That’s my boy.”

The three of them zip away from Eren’s body, retreat halfway up the wall, and Eren turns back to Reiner, snarling viciously low in his throat. Reiner’s already on his feet, though his arm isn’t even close to fully reforming. It may be that he’s tired, or it may be that he can’t regenerate as quickly because of his armour, but whatever the reason, Eren’s going to take full advantage of it.

_You destroyed my home. Why? What could have possibly driven you to murdering thousands of innocent people? Why did they have to die? What could you have wanted so badly inside the walls that you had to kill so many to get it?_

Reiner throws himself forward into a sprint at a speed he shouldn’t be capable of. He rockets towards Eren like a bullet, and Eren barely has enough time to brace himself, can’t get out of the way fast enough. Reiner collides bodily with him, throws Eren back into the wall with enough force to shatter his teeth, and he hits the ground hard

There’s too much power behind his attack and he bears down on Eren, driving his fist down in a punch that would crush his skill if Eren hadn’t jerked to the side at the last second. He hears Armin scream for him, begging him not to let Reiner pin him, and Eren drives a foot into Reiner’s weakened side, shoving him away and rolling backwards onto his feet.

He can’t back up fast enough. Reiner lunges again, grapples Eren around the waist, but Eren’s ready for him. His legs snap up, cinch around Reiner’s waist and unbalance him. They go crashing down to the ground together, but Eren won’t let go, locks his ankles and hauls against Reiner’s neck, muscles rippling beneath his titan skin as he tries to bend Reiner in half.

The armour on his back cracks.

_I have you now, you son of a bitch!_

Reiner thrashes in his grip, roaring and screaming and fighting with everything in him. Eren’s legs begin to slip. No. He won’t let Reiner get away. Not after everything he’s done. For Shiganshina, for his mother, for everyone who lost everything the day the gate was breached.

For Trost. For Marco. For Thomas and Mina.

Eren’s hold is near to breaking. He can’t do it. He _can’t_ -

Fast as a lightning strike and twice as deadly, Mikasa ricochets off the wall, gas hissing and blades glinting as she arches through the air, a furious battle cry ripping past her lips. Eren doesn’t see the blow she strikes, sees her disappear behind Reiner’s back and sees the titan blood spurt into the air in her wake.

Then Reiner sags against him, leverage lost, and Eren understands.

The backs of his knees, unprotected so he can move. She’s sliced clean through and given Eren the window he needs.

Eren roars, locks his angles tighter, and _heaves_.

He hears a crack, a deafening splinter. They’re so close to victory.

But the crack isn’t from Reiner’s armour. It’s too loud, too deep.

Eren looks up.

The colossal titan comes crashing down to meet him.


	5. Chapter 5

There comes a time when you have to decide exactly how far you’re willing to go to achieve your goals. Leonhardt’s made her choice and surprised Levi by planting herself firmly and refusing to go no further. He is, begrudgingly, impressed by her resolve. He still wants to kill her, and he will, but he’s allowed to respect the fortitude of another soldier until then.

So here’s what he knows from questioning her.

Fuck all.

Good, right?

Well, no, that’s not exactly true. He knows the breach is a farce, but titans have been sighted within the walls so they’ve got to have come from somewhere. Leonhardt doesn’t know where, Levi believes her when she tells him that, which means that their little ragtag group of traitors have finally run out of time to do whatever they were meant to do here.

He knows that Leonhardt’s comrades are going to seize the opportunity to grab Eren while they can, so Eren’s in danger and that’s fucking enough, honestly, but he can’t do shit from here, so he needs to get the hell out of the city, ideally without an entire brigade of MPs up his ass.

He also needs to figure out how in the hell he's meant to uphold his end of the bargain while Leonhardt’s public enemy number one.

In short?

He isn’t.

He’s not fucking proud of it, but like hell is he going to let a walking murder machine just _go_. Far as he’s concerned, she can help him out here, and then he’ll cut her nape so deep her fucking ancestors will feel it, and he won’t lose a wink of sleep over it.

That’s how far Levi’s willing to go. He’s made a promise to someone far more important than Leonhardt, after all. Betraying her means nothing. She can make herself useful all she wants, Levi’s still going to kill her when all is said and done.

But why five years?

That’s the part Levi can’t wrap his head around. She’s so sure that she’s only got five years, what the hell is that about? Is she sick? Suicidal? Dosed with some kind of slow release poison to ensure cooperation from her mysterious masters outside the walls? Fuck knows, but Levi doesn’t really care. She’s not getting her five years, not unless she decides to be _actually_ helpful and spill every little thing she knows about what’s waiting for them outside the walls.

They were expecting titans. Not an entire fucking shadowy group of people hell bent on getting _inside_.

Leonhardt’s given more than Levi expected, but nothing worth jack shit from a tactical standpoint. No plans, no orders, no motives. Just that whoever these people are, they have it out for everyone inside the walls and the power to destroy them if necessary.

They have the fucking colossal titan on their side, what the hell’s stopping them?

They need to know more.

Levi needs to get her out of the cell if they want to stand any chance of getting any information from her.

He’s not stupid, though. He knows he can’t just lobby for her release. It’s just his damn luck to be the soul scout in a city full of MPs with absolutely no one around gifted in manipulation. Pyxis would be helpful, Erwin would be stellar. Levi’s version of bargaining tends to boil down to “do this or I start stabbing”.

Which…

No. Won’t work.

Damn it.

He could spring her, orchestrate a jailbreak, but that would rain shit and fire down on the scouts faster than they could blink. They’d come for Eren first, brand him a traitor, then the rest of them would follow. The scouts would be disbanded, any hope of leaving the walls lost with them. Humanity would suffer and the enemies outside the walls would undoubtedly break in.

It is, it has to be said, one hell of a fucking lose-lose situation.

Though maybe springing Leonhardt from the cell isn’t that bad an idea. Sure Levi’ll become the MP’s new biggest problem, but he’s actually alright with that. He’s had a lot of practice, he’s been giving them trouble since he was eight. And getting Leonhardt out of her cell and in front of master manipulator and tactician Commander Erwin Smith is probably going to be their best bet.

Good god, is he actually considering this? Every MP in the city is on highest alert, there’s no way Levi would be able to get her out unseen. He could take her through the sewers, maybe, but aside from being disgusting, there’s no clear route out of the city that wouldn’t get them seen. They’d need somewhere to hide, somewhere to wait so Levi can lead the MPs on a merry chase. Somewhere dark, somewhere hidden, somewhere…

_Underground._

The idea is not a pleasant one. But it may just be the solution he’s searching for. Is Levi prepared to go that far though? To return - even just temporarily - to the place he fought tooth and nail to escape, just so that he can free his enemy?

For Eren?

Without a fucking doubt.

* * *

The MPs are on highest alert, whatever the fuck that means for the pampered pricks that occupy the interior cities. They’ve never seen a goddamn titan and thanks to Levi and Hanji’s teams, these assholes hadn’t even caught a glimpse when there had been two brawling violently in their city. The closest they’ve come are to the titan corpses that have long since disintegrated into ash, left behind by Eren and Leonhardt’s transformations. It’s likely they’ll never come closer than that and Levi resents them for it.

Among many other things.

And high alert for the MPs just means standing around in full gear, armed with muskets and fully stocked scabbards, waiting for an order that will never come. They watch Levi with anxious eyes as he ascends the steps from the holding cells and he’s finding it hard to feel even the slightest bit sorry for them. There’s always been a vast divide between the MPs and the rest of the people, privilege and wealth separating them from people like Levi and those he cares about. The fight against the titans is something that happens to _other people_ , not those safely tucked away in the interior, so why should the MPs care about it until it affects them?

Disgusting.

“Oi,” Levi says to the nearest guard. “Where’s Dawk?”

“Sir?”

“Your bastard Commander, where is he?”

“Ah- The barracks, Sir. Awaiting news regarding the breach.”

Sir. Levi needs to remember to tell Farlan about this. He’ll definitely get a kick out of the MPs calling Levi _Sir._

Turns out, “barracks” is a misnomer. The barracks Levi’s used to are old, dusty rooms with rickety beds and storage crates afflicted with rot. Barracks for the MPs may as well be goddamn hotel rooms. Dormitories built to house the best of the best. Even the newest recruits get fancy rooms that they only have to share with one other roommate. It’s backwards, is what it is, that the best of the cadets, the most skilled, get shipped away to the interior where their talents are wasted. Levi’s never understood the logic behind it.

But Dawk is indeed waiting at the barracks with the rest of his squad, seated around a table and trading terse, anxious words while they wait for any news regarding the breach. Levi lets himself in without knocking because he doesn’t give a shit, strides over to Dawk with a grim expression.

“She won’t talk,” Levi says, interrupting whatever conversation they’d been having before his discourteous arrival. “She’s in your custody so I figured I’d better ask first. Can I kill her now?”

Dawk’s face pales whiter than his crisp, pressed shirt. He excuses himself quickly from the group, gestures for Levi to follow him into some sort of side room, filled with crates that appear to be full of wine bottles and not much else. So this is how the other half live. Levi’s so angry he could chew glass.

“You really couldn’t get her to talk?” Dawk asks once they’re in private. “She wouldn’t give you anything?”

“Not a thing,” Levi says, and it’s no hardship for him to scowl convincingly because he’s already beyond pissed to be standing in Stohess surrounded by opulence and luxury. “You’re in charge here, so I need the go ahead.”

“I…” Dawk swallows. “Alright. But I’ll be with you. I need to know how she dies.”

“Yeah, fine,” Levi says. “Come watch, I don’t care. But don’t get ahead of yourself, she’s the only titan shifter you’re gonna see die. Until we capture the colossal and the armoured, of course.”

Provided they can get to them before they make a move for Eren. Levi has no idea what’s going on inside wall Rose but Leonhardt’s insinuations hadn’t been good. She’d called it a trap, though one not of her own design, which means new players have entered the game.

“I want this over quickly,” Levi says. “I need to join my men.”

“Of course,” Dawk says and he looks relieved at the prospect of getting Levi out of Stohess as quickly as possible. The feeling is entirely mutual.

“Let’s go,” Levi says, striding out of the room before he can do something stupid like smash one of those indecently expensive wine bottles over Dawk’s head.

The image alone is enough to tide him over. For now.

They make for the holding cells in silence, though Dawk’s troubled expression only deepens the closer they get. It’s remarkably easy for Levi to ignore because he genuinely doesn’t give the slightest of shits about Dawk’s current mental distress. If Levi were inclined to feelings of generosity, he’d admit that Dawk’s intention to be present when Leonhardt meets her end is rather big of him, all things considered. But though Erwin has a high opinion of the man, Levi’s not so easily swayed.

“I’m going to try beheading her, I think,” Levi says boredly as they descend the steps. “Not a lot of creatures that can survive that. Think it’ll work?”

“Sure,” Dawk manages, a little green.

“Don’t know why you’re so nervous. I’m the one who’s going to be killing her, all you have to do is stand there. Shouldn’t be difficult. You guys are good at that.”

Dawk scowls but keeps his mouth blessedly shut. At least until they get to the holding cells and find Leonhardt’s cell door wide open, half a dozen MPs dead on the floor with their heads caved in. Levi closes his eyes for a moment, adds their lives to his bloody ledger, because Leonhardt may have struck the killing blow, but Levi was the one who gave her the opportunity.

With a deep breath, Levi opens his eyes, and everything happens pretty quickly after that.

Dawk yells for the guards, sprinting from the cells with Levi hot on his heels. The message is passed on, soldier to soldier; a dangerous criminal has escaped, to hunt and pursue, eliminate on sight, terminate not capture. In a handful of minutes, the entire might of Stohess’ Military Police is assembled and Levi wonders if he’s made his job significantly harder than it needs to be.

Probably.

“Dawk,” he says, catching the Commander firmly by the arm. “Any men you can spare, post them at the entrances to the underground. I’d bet my life that’s where she’s gone.”

Dawk rounds on him in a panic and if Levi were a lesser man, the guilt for what he’s unleashed would eat him alive. But he doesn’t have time for guilt or remorse, doesn’t have time to waste on the MPs and their problems because his comrades are riding out into a situation that none of them are prepared for and if he doesn’t move quickly, they could lose everything.

“Seal the exits,” Levi tells Dawk. “She can’t get far, she’s got her fucking leg trapped in crystal. I’ll go down after her, none of you stand a chance of hunting her down. I’ll be faster on my own.”

“And if you can’t contain her?”

“I don’t think we need to worry about that. Her target was always Eren Jaeger. She’s going to try to leave the city, she won’t risk an attack now.”

“Go, then,” Dawk says. “We’ll seal the exits to the underground. Are you sure she’ll be down there?”

“Positive,” Levi says. _Considering I told her to be, yeah_.

Dawk lets Levi avail himself of fresh blades and gas canisters. The nearest entrance to the underground is a short way past the main thoroughfare, tucked away down a side street like a shameful secret and patrolled by guards day and night. It’s not an entrance Levi’s ever used before, too close to the marketplace and was always too heavily guarded for him to slip through unseen. It feels strange to be descending the stone steps now, returning to the place he fought so hard to leave, but he reassures himself with the fact that he’s not returning, not properly. If he plays his cards right, he won’t even have to venture that far down.

Stohess’ sewer system runs right through the underground. All filth passes through the subterranean city, down into disgusting pools below the main streets that chuck up a stench so foul it’s unbearable. Even here, on the very outskirts of the underground’s boundary, the vile yet familiar stench is enough to turn Levi’s stomach. He ignores it, shoves the revulsion down, and disappears into the bowels of the city.

He’s not followed. A bonus, because Levi doesn’t want to have to turn his blades against the MPs without cause. He may hate them and everything they stand for, but they are still on humanity’s side - for now - and he won’t harm them without direct reason to do so. All he needs them to do is stay out of his way for long enough for him to follow the old pipe through the underground, the route he’d whispered to Leonhardt before slipping the cell key into her shackled palms.

 _That's as much as I can do,_ he’d told her. _Until you’re through the sewers, you’re on your own._

Levi has absolutely no intention of venturing into the sewers after her. The underground is as close to filth as he’s willing to get, and even now he’s not willing to stray far from the very edges of the city. There’s an old copper pipe that runs the length of the underground, opens up into one of those fetid pools of waste that give the underground its overpowering stench. That’s the pipe Leonhardt should be moving through, having slipped into it from a grate inside the holding cells just large enough for her to pass through. Levi had given her direction and the means, all she has to do is move.

He follows that pipe to its end, throws an arm over his mouth when the stench threatens to make him hurl. The old grating covering the end of the pipe is clogged with garbage and filth and Levi grimaces as he climbs the pipe, drawing his blades to slash at the rusted lock until it shatters and the grating swings open, snapping from ancient hinges and plunging into the toxic pool below.

He can hear an echoing clang from inside. He lodges his anchors into the old stone foundations and waits.

Leonhardt bursts from the end with a cry and Levi lunges for her, grabbing her wrist before she can slip from the pipe into the waste pool and drown in a century’s worth of filth. She looks up at him with wide eyes, dangling above the contaminated water like the most disgusting fish caught on a hook, and with a grunt, Levi hauls her to safety.

“You made it,” Levi notes, releasing her wrist with a disgusted sound. “You’re filthy.”

“I just climbed through half a mile of sewage,” Leonhardt says. “You can deal with it.”

She extends her leg, the one still encased in crystal, and looks to Levi with a grim expression. Levi nods, raises a blade, and severs the limb with a savage downward strike. The wound hisses steam and to her credit, Leonhardt doesn’t so much as flinch, closes her eyes and focuses for a long moment, until the limb ripples and reforms right in front of Levi’s eyes.

“Gross,” Levi tells her.

“Fuck you,” Leonhardt says sweetly, wigging her bare toes. The reformed limb is the cleanest part of her now.

Levi throws his cape at her. “MP emblem is too recognisable. Put that on and no, I don’t want it back until it’s been sterilised.”

Leonhardt glares at him but fastens the cloak around her shoulders. “Shouldn’t I just get rid of it?”

“No, we might need it.” For what, he’s not sure yet, but he’d rather have it and not need it than be caught without something that might be useful later on. Even if it does smell like shit.

Literally.

“Now what?” Leonhardt demands. “The MPs are on high alert, how the hell are we meant to get out of the city without being seen?”

“Carefully,” Levi says. “There’s a stairwell close to the walls, in the northern quarter. We can get out there.”

“All the exits are being guarded,” Leonhardt says. “You gave that order, in your infinite wisdom.”

“Yeah, but that one’s special,” Levi says. “Thing is, the interior lot just love looking down on the underground, but we’ve got shit down here that they want. Think about it, if you want to fool around without the possibility of ever being found out, you’re gonna get your rocks off in the underground. What happens here stays down here. You follow?”

“Not even slightly.”

Levi rolls his eyes. “There’s a brothel by that entrance. Interior well-to-dos come down for an easy lay, to the place they can hide all their shit from their topside friends and families. So much less hassle in the long run if you can hide your mistress and any potential misbegotten brat mistakes underground where they’re likely to die, wouldn’t you agree?”

That’s exactly what Levi’s father had done, after all.

“That’s… horrific,” Leonhardt says.

“Yeah, now you’re catching on. Hood up, let’s move.”

As much as Levi had wanted otherwise, he can’t avoid taking them further into the underground. They still keep to the edges, don’t venture down any side streets, and though they draw significant interest from most people they pass, Levi’s face is familiar enough to ward them off from accosting them. He can feel their eyes on him as he strides with purpose to their destination, feel the old sensation of claustrophobia and filth crawling over his skin, but he ignores it. He can leave freely, he isn’t trapped down here.

Never again. Never again.

“Inside,” Levi tells Leonhardt once they reach an old building not far from the staircase they need to ascend to reach the surface, a rotting old sign bearing a faded painting of a rose hanging above the door. The staircase ahead is crawling with guards, all of them on edge with their rifles ready, but Levi and Leonhardt slip into the brothel without drawing attention, at least until they’re inside and the proprietor turns to greet them with a grin that’s missing far too many teeth.

“Well now!” The old woman crows. “My, my, I never get scouts visiting my fine establishment. What brings you this far into- _Levi?_ ”

“Long time no see, Margo,” Levi says. “How’s things?”

“Fucking awful,” Margo says, rounding the counter and advancing on him before he can back away. Humiliatingly and despite the bad back that’s hunched over with age, she doesn’t have to reach up too far to pinch his cheeks, the way she always used to when he was a boy. “It’s been years since I’ve seen your scrawny ass. You look underfed. I thought the topsiders were meant to feed their people better.”

“Fuck _off_ , Margo,” Levi tells her, shoving her withered talons away from his face. “God, I thought you’d have died already. What the hell’s still keeping you alive?”

“Spite,” Margo says with a cackle.

“Sounds about right.”

“You a soldier now, then? Thought we’d raised you better than that.”

Margo - the madam of the brothel Kuchel raised Levi in until her death and his uncle stepped in and assumed temporary guardianship of him - is a wicked, wizened old woman. She drives a hard bargain, has more cunning than teeth, and Levi despises her with every shred of his being.

He is also unbearably fond of her. She taught him how to pick pockets without being seen. She was also the one who lobbied to let Kuchel keep him, rather than sending him out to crawl around the slums with the rest of the orphans or turning him into a failed abortion that would have killed both him and his mother.

“Who’s your friend?” Margo says, turning her milky white eyes to Leonhardt.

“Wanted criminal,” Levi says. “We’re in a spot of bother here. Was hoping you had enough compassion left in your ancient, decrepit heart to help me out.”

“Why the fuck would I do that?” Margo asks. “Ungrateful son of a bitch. Last I heard you cleared out of here without a backward glance. Forgotten where you came from?”

“No, the trauma’s pretty firmly locked in,” Levi says. “And I’m not asking for a freebie. I’ll pay.”

“You think I want your money?”

“Yes.”

“Damn right I do. Put it on the table and we’ll talk.”

Levi rolls his eyes and unfastens the money pouch from his belt, dropping it onto the rotting counter. It’s not much, he wasn’t exactly planning on doing any shopping in Stohess considering they were here to trap a titan, but now that he has funds to his name he keeps enough on him for emergencies, and this definitely classes as an emergency.

Margo lifts the pouch, weighing it in her wrinkly old palm and smacking her lips unpleasantly. “Look at you, making something of yourself. How’d you manage that, then? You were always such a scrawny runt, good for nothing except cleaning gutters and thievery.”

“Don’t really have time for a catch up,” Levi says. “Is there enough in there for you to help me?”

“Just about,” Margo says. “Cheap little shit. I thought topsiders-“

 _”Margo,”_ Levi snaps. “This is a time sensitive situation.”

“Fine, fine. What do you need?”

“Change of clothes for my friend here and a distraction, if you can manage it. We need to get up the north staircase.”

“Sounds doable. You.” She points at Leonhardt. “Follow Selene.”

Leonhardt blinks. “Who’s-“

“SELENE!” Margo bellows abruptly, startling Leonhardt so badly Levi almost laughs. A moment later, a familiar face pokes her head through the curtains concealing the door to the back, long, dirty blonde hair braided over one shoulder.

“What is it, you hag?” Selene demands angrily “I’ve got work to- Oh!” Her anger melts away into fond delight. “Levi, how are you, my darling? Long time no see!”

“Hey, Selene. Keeping well?”

“Oh, you know, plodding along. Good to see you.” She scowls at Margo. “The fuck do you want?”

“Get a change of clothes for this one,” Margo says, shoving Leonhardt towards her. “And bathe her. She stinks of sewage.”

“Mm,” Selene says, wrinkling her nose. “Oh, poor thing, you do smell quite bad. Rough day? Follow me, we’ll get you cleaned up, come on.” She takes Leonhardt’s hand and ushers her through the curtains, leaving Levi and Margo alone at the counter.

“What sort of trouble are you in, brat?” Margo demands. “Causing shit upstairs? I thought you wanted to live up there, why are you making trouble?”

“Has a habit of finding me even when I’m not looking,” Levi says. “I’m not looking for a lecture, _granny_. Just keep your gummy mouth shut and help me.”

Margo snickers repulsively. “Oh, I've missed having you around. Runt.”

“Hag.”

“What’re you thinking?”

“I need the guards drawn away from the staircase. Ideally make them think my… companion’s been sighted further in. It’s her they're looking for and I need to get her out.”

“You’re mixed up in some shit, then.”

“Understatement. But yes.”

“I’m too old to be cleaning up after you,” Margo grumbles. “I’m not seventy anymore.”

“Really? You don’t look a day over ninety.”

“Fuck off. Jumped up little shit.”

Levi doesn’t quite smile, is far too stressed for that, but Margo knows him well enough to read the fondness on his face. She pats his cheek roughly, pinching it for good measure, and Levi lets her because she’s probably the only thing close to a relative he has left.

“Listen,” Levi says, against his better judgement. “I heard some shit a while back. Serial killer going after MPs. Know anything about it?”

“No,” Margo says. “And what’s it to you? You friends with the bastards now?”

“Hardly. Just wondered if my darling uncle was up to his old tricks again. It’s something he’d do. If he’s even still alive.”

“Probably is,” Margo mutters darkly. “Smarmy bastard. You Ackermans are a fucking resilient lot. Put on this earth to give me fucking trouble, that’s what. Nuisances, the lot of you. Can’t fucking get a moment’s peace. Even your sweet mother, god rest her soul, she was the nicest of the lot of you but she was still a firecracker when she needed to be.”

“Good to know troublemaking’s in my genes,” Levi says absently, followed a moment later by a very startled, “what the _fuck?”_

“What?” Margo looks at him, eyes narrowed. “The fuck’s wrong with you, brat?”

Quite a lot, honestly. He’s standing in his charming childhood home; a brothel miles below ground, talking to his grandmother-adjacent figure, the propriety of the fine establishment he was raised in. From context, it should be pretty obvious that Levi’s not as well-adjusted as most people. But that’s not what’s got him standing there like he’s been smacked over the head with something hard.

“Ackerman?” Levi splutters. _”Ackerman?”_

“Are you stupid?” Margo demands. “Yes, Ackerman. What are you blabbering about, you fool?”

“Why did you say Ackerman? Is- _Margo, why did you say Ackerman?”_

“It’s your family name,” Margo snaps. “What fucking idiot doesn’t even know his own family name?”

“Nobody ever told me!” Levi barks. “It’s not exactly something that comes up, is it? My mother never mentioned it, Kenny sure as shit never saw fit to tell me. How the fuck was I meant to know?”

“Probably did it to protect you,” Margo says, smacking Levi round the back of the head. Her clunky, oversized rings connect with a stinging thunk and _that’s_ sure as hell bringing up some fun memories Levi thought he’d repressed. He’s probably got scars on the back of his head in the shape of her jewellery, she’d smacked him so often back when he was a kid. “Ackerman’s not a popular name.”

“Why not?”

“Fuck knows,” Margo sniffs. “All I know is that your lot were treated poorly topside. That’s why your mother came down here, to get away from the persecution. Never understood why, she wouldn’t talk about it. I’m not surprised they kept it from you.”

Levi doesn’t have _time_ for this but god, he’s got so many questions. Questions Margo can’t answer, the only one who can is Kenny and Levi’s sure as shit not about to go hunting him down.

But… Ackerman. His name is Ackerman. After so long, he has a family name, an identity, something he never thought he’d possess. It almost feels like a gift.

Ackerman…

...Hold the fuck on.

Mikasa Ackerman. Holy shit.

Well. That fucking explains a lot, doesn’t it?

His whirlwind internal struggle is brought to a halt when Selene brings Leonhardt back out, clean and dressed in soft cotton pants and a clean shirt that’s slightly too large but serviceable enough. She’s strapped her harness on over it, but her gear was confiscated when she was captured so they’ve only got Levi’s set between them, and even that was taken from Armin when Levi’s own set was broken in the battle for Stohess.

Could be worse.

“Right, good,” Levi says. “Distraction?”

“Leave it to us,” Margo says with a wink. “And don’t be a stranger. You should visit more often.”

Maybe he should. He’s not going to. But if he gets his way, then he’s going to bring every single one of them up to the surface, the way they deserve to live.

“Stay safe,” he tells them both, jerking his head so that Leonhardt will follow. Her customary flat expression is back in place, but there’s a curiosity in her eyes that Levi has neither the patience nor the temperament to deal with. She’s seen more of Levi’s past than he’s let anyone else ever see, doesn’t deserve it, so Levi’s not exactly willing to field probing questions, even if she wasn’t an enemy.

“Down,” he hisses, dragging her across the street into a dark little alcove. “And be ready to run, we won’t have long. Once we’re clear, we’ll scale the wall. We have horses hitched not far from the gate.” They should still be there, from their ride to Stohess from HQ. Hanji’s team took fresh horses when they rode out, so the horses they tied off shouldn’t have been moved. If they have been, Levi’s going to hamstring whoever dared to touch his horse without his permission.

But even if they have been, they’ve got options. Leonhardt _is_ a titan, after all.

A cry goes up from the brothel, a clamour of distressed yells, deafening and extremely convincing. The MPs guarding the stairwell look over, just in time to see a group of women flock out, all screaming like banshees.

Selene screams, sobbing actual tears that help wonderfully to sell the ruse. But what really helps the act hit home, is the person who comes running out from the brothel, dressed in Leonhardt’s abandoned uniform.

Clever.

The MPs take the bait, come streaming into the underground as “Leonhardt” disappears into the shadowy streets. Levi waits for them to pass before breaking cover, sprinting for the stairs with Leonhardt close behind. It’s almost embarrassing how often the MPs follow for the old decoy trick, but Levi’s not going to question it when it’s working so effectively in their favour. They make a mad dash for the exit, race up the stairs faster than their legs can carry them, and Levi doesn’t spare a single thought for witnesses, grabs Leonhardt around the waist and launches his gear hooks.

They ascend the wall in a dizzying rush, but no cries echo behind them, no wires hiss signifying the MPs have given chase. Even the top of the wall is conspicuously unguarded, the wall garrison having mobilised to help find and seal the breach that doesn’t even exist.

Still Levi doesn’t stop. He carries them over the wall in a single movement, clearing the whole thing with a wrench of his wires and hiss of gas. His injured shoulder twinges but is easily ignored, especially when adrenaline floods his blood. He brings them both over the wall, sends them soaring down the other side, safe, unseen, successful.

And their horses are still hitched a short way from the gate.

Their luck is holding.

“Get on,” Levi orders, dumping Leonhardt unceremoniously onto the ground. “But if anything happens to that horse, I’ll kill you.”

“Alright,” Leonhardt says, eyeing Eren’s trusty steed. “Is it a particularly special horse?”

“Yes. Now shut up and get on.” Levi hauls himself into his own mount’s saddle, patting Lark’s neck when she whickers softly in greeting. “With any luck we can link up with the rest of the scouts. Don’t even think about trying to give me the slip. I’ve got absolutely no qualms about going back on our deal.”

Leonhardt doesn’t deign to respond, climbs into Horse’s saddle - Levi still fucking hates that name - and in the span of a breath they’re off, riding at breakneck pace towards Trost. It’s the closest district they can easily reach, and the scouts will ride right through once they’ve been mobilised. It shouldn’t be difficult for Levi and Leonhardt to catch them up.

He just hopes they’re not too late.


	6. Chapter 6

“If you want to be helpful, tell me exactly what it is we’re riding into. I know you’ve settled on being silent and difficult, but whatever you tell me now is only going to help your cause.”

Leonhardt doesn’t answer immediately, hasn’t said anything for the two hours they’ve been riding, but when Levi looks over, she’s frowning like she’s trying to decide between being helpful, or staying infuriatingly silent.

“Look, talk or don’t,” Levi tells her. “But you clearly don’t hold any loyalty to the people who sent you here. And you’re going to die anyway, so what does it matter if you give up some information before you snuff it?”

“It’s complicated,” Leonhardt finally says, after some great internal battle Levi is neither privy to nor invested in. “You’re assuming my allegiances have changed, they haven’t. I’m not loyal to them and I’m not loyal to you. I was sent here for a purpose and I failed.”

“Right, so succeed at something else,” Levi says. “I don’t need your allegiances to change, fuck knows we’re not going to waste our breath trying to recruit you. I don’t give a shit if you won’t defect. But this affects you too. Like it or not, you’re on our side. If only because you can’t get back to yours. My point stands, though. You’re stuck in enemy territory, might as well make the best of it.”

“I have been for years.”

“Exactly. Doesn't that matter to you? You’ve spent nearly as long with us as you have… Wherever you came from. Like it or not, it’s got to have left a mark on you.”

Leonhardt, predictably, doesn’t answer.

“You didn’t help your buddies break into Shiganshina,” Levi says. “You didn’t appear at Trost. You struck out on your own to hunt us down. I get that your friends probably had to protect their identities, but it’s not like you’ve been working together throughout all this. Hell, you joined the MPs by yourself. What was the deal with that?”

“Eren wasn’t supposed to be our target,” Leonhardt says. Levi’s head jerks round in surprise. It’s not an admission he was expecting her to give. “We came to gather information. That’s all this was supposed to be. Gain information, get out, go home. Eren’s ability took us all by surprise.”

“He wasn’t supposed to have it?”

“No. The power belonged to someone else.”

“So it can be transferred?”

“Not easily. And the person who gave it to him shouldn’t have had the means to do so. It’s not a pleasant process.”

Levi can’t even imagine. But Eren doesn’t know how he got the power, other than from his father. He remembers a syringe and a titan. Beyond that, they know nothing about how the power is passed on. Levi’s not holding out much hope that Leonhardt will explain the process.

“So in Trost, you guys decided to nab him?”

“We wanted to stay close. We didn’t know how much he knew. Painfully little, as the case may be. Which is fortunate for us, because it means no one knows anything about our presence here. Or they didn’t. Obviously they know now.”

Yes, obviously. “So if Eren wasn’t your target, who were you after?”

It’s a shot in the dark and Levi’s absolutely prepared for more of Leonhardt’s sullen silence. He’s genuinely not even sure why he’s still bothering to-

“Grisha Jaeger.”

...Huh.

“So he is one of yours.” It makes sense, as much as Levi wishes it didn’t. Pyxis had said as much, months ago, while Eren lay between them in the carriage to the interior, exhausted from his titan transformation to seal Trost’s gate. He’d said Grisha was found outside the walls with no memory of how he’d gotten there.

And he’d been let in. Let in and allowed to live among them.

“Once,” Leonhardt says. “I wasn’t there when he left. He defected. We were sent to find him, to see what he’d done with the power he stole.”

“He hadn’t done anything with it, though. Aside from pass it onto Eren. No one knew anything about it. If they have, they haven’t come forward.”

“It goes deeper than that,” Leonhardt says. “There are layers to this you can’t even imagine. This, the titans and the power we hold? This is just the surface. You’re fighting titans every time you ride out but you don’t know where they come from or why.”

“Do you?”

Leonhardt looks at him. “Yes.”

She does not elaborate.

“Good talk. Thanks.”

“They hunt us too, you know,” Leonhardt says before Levi can write her off as a lost cause. “When I was a child, the attacks were a weekly occurrence. I told you, we don’t have the walls protecting us like you do, we don’t have that kind of safety. So no matter how much you think you’ve lost to the titans; Shiganshina, Trost, your stupid little expeditions, it doesn’t come close to what we’ve lost. It never will.”

That’s… Not what Levi had been expecting her to say at all. He hadn’t expected her to say _anything_ , but that admission, the quiet pain and fury behind her words… Conveys more than she probably intended it to.

“So why aren’t your people inside the walls with us?”

Leonhardt looks away. “Because we were left behind.”

“By who?”

She shakes her head and Levi’s half tempted to tackle her from Horse’s back and beat the fucking answer out of her, would if he thought her answers could be beaten out of her. But he knows enough about her by now to know that there’s not a lot that Leonhardt can’t withstand. She’d weather the beating silently and Levi would only bloody his hands with nothing to show for it.

“You understand that it’s a piss poor reason to wage a war, right?” Levi says. “If your people’s grudge is against ours because you got left out in the cold, you’re about a hundred years too late to collect on their debt. The people who locked you out are long since dead.”

“I don’t care,” Leonhardt says. “Not about the debt. I don’t care about any of it. I told you, it’s not a war I wanted to be part of, but I didn’t have a choice. We’re trained practically from birth to inherit the titan power, we get no say in the matter. I don’t care that we were left outside, I don’t care about any of it. I just want to live, but even if I abandon my people and their war, I can’t even do that. I’ve only-“

“Got five years,” Levi finishes. “What’s the deal with that, anyway? You seem so sure about it.”

Leonhardt shakes her head. “I won’t talk about it. Not with you. To Eren, yes. There’s information I have that I’ll only give to him.”

“Assuming we let you anywhere near him.”

“You will,” Leonhardt says. “You won’t have a choice. I need to speak to him and he’s the only one I’ll give any more information to.”

“Any particular reason?”

Leonhardt is quiet for a long moment, but not quite long enough for Levi to assume noncompliance once again. “I owe him,” is her eventual answer, so soft Levi almost misses it over the pounding hoofbeats below them.

For what, Levi doesn’t know. But if Leonhardt’s genuine, then he just needs to wait to find out.

“Inclined to tell me exactly what’s going on with the titans inside the walls when there’s no breach?”

“No,” Leonhardt says. “That’s something I’ll only tell Eren.”

Levi grits his teeth but there’s not much he can do about it. “Suit yourself.”

* * *

A flare goes up not much later, past a copse of trees about two hundred meters eastward. Levi automatically swerves towards it, bringing alarm round sharply and whistling so that Horse will follow rather than obey his temporary rider. It’s ridiculous, the near overpowering swell of relief that follows the signal, and Levi’s not too proud to admit that he’s ready to hand Leonhardt over to Erwin and wash his hands of the whole situation.

After he’s gotten Eren back.

They race for the signal, circling the trees so that the detachment they're riding for have a clear view of them. He’s hoping to god that it’s just scouts and no wall garrison soldiers, because explaining Leonhardt’s presence might be just a tad awkward to those who don’t know the situation.

It’s complicated. The jailbreak was completely justified.

That’s Levi’s story and he’s sticking to it.

He’s in luck and he’s starting to get suspicious at just how long this lucky streak seems to be going on for. He really hopes it’s not prelude to catastrophe, but it probably fucking is. Levi and karma do not have a good working relationship. But regardless of how much karmic retribution Levi’s set up to receive, the scouts riding full tilt for Trost are headed by Erwin, who looks over when a cry goes out from the spotters on the fringes of the formation, and though he looks first to Levi and then Leonhardt with surprise, he doesn’t look angry.

Yet.

Levi brings Lark round, folding neatly into formation and bringing her up alongside Erwin and his mount. Leonhardt falls in beside him without prompting, which Levi had expected but he’s still pleased he doesn’t have to strike her down. Weird, considering he was desperate to kill her only a few short hours ago.

“I really hope you have a good explanation for this,” Erwin says.

“Yeah, ‘course I do,” Levi says. “Got some information out of her, figured she was more use than we initially thought.”

“And the MPs let her go?”

“That would be a resounding “no”, Commander Erwin, Sir. But I believe the saying goes “better to ask forgiveness than permission”. Far as they’re concerned, she sprang herself. They don’t know I had anything to do with it.”

Erwin closes his eyes, looks for all the world like an aggrieved parent dealing with a particularly rambunctious child. “This had better be good information, then.”

“It is. There’s no breach.”

Erwin looks past him, to where Leonhardt is riding with her eyes fixed ahead. “Is that so? We’ve yet to encounter any titans ourselves, but the reports can’t be denied. What makes her so sure?”

“Don’t know that part, but I’m hoping we’ll find out. She seems to think the colossal and the armoured are going to make a move for Eren in the confusion.”

“Has she disclosed their identities?”

“No. But they were in the right wing and cadets in the 104th, so that narrows the suspects down considerably.”

“It does indeed. Very well. We can question her further once we’ve retrieved Eren and the others. Then we can try to smooth things over with the MPs.”

“Or not,” Levi says. “They don’t need to know we have her.”

“Later, Levi. We will discuss this. Your flagrant disregard for laws can’t just be overlooked.”

“That’s rich, coming from you.”

He opens his mouth to say something else, something Levi probably won’t take kindly to, but he’s interrupted when a shaft of vibrant orange lightning strikes down atop the wall ahead, far away in the distance. They’re too far away to see what follows the lightning strike, but then two more shafts crackle down in quick succession and Levi’s heart drops into his stomach.

“Erwin.”

“I see it. The armoured and the colossal have made their appearance, it seems.”

And Eren has too, to fight them. Which means he’s alive and well enough to battle, but it doesn’t bode well. They’re over five hours away on horseback, they haven’t even passed Ehrmich yet. By the time the scouts reach the wall, it could be well past too late.

“We won’t be able to get over the wall,” Levi says. “We can’t get to a gate in time, we won’t be able to help.”

“I know.” Erwin is quiet for a long moment. “We’ll need lifts to get the horses over. Otherwise we’ll have to ride on to Krolva and double back.”

“Erwin, we don’t have time.”

“We do,” Leonhardt says. “I can get you there.”

Erwin looks at her. “You’d assist us?”

“That’s why I’m here.”

Erwin blinks. “Levi, I clearly underestimated your powers of persuasion.”

“Shut it,” Levi snaps. He turns to Leonhardt. “I’m willing, but you’re leaving your nape unhardened. I want to be able to slice you out without too much difficulty if I have to.”

“Fine,” Leonhardt says at once. “Decide quickly, we don’t have long. Eren might be able to hold up against me, but against the colossal _and_ the armoured, he doesn’t stand a chance. The only good thing is that they’ll take him alive, but if they get him past Maria, you won’t get him back.”

“Go, then,” Erwin says quickly. “We’ll catch up once we have lifts from Krolva.”

Levi nods. “Look after our horses.”

He looks to Leonhardt who nods, dives out of Horse’s saddle and comes to a rolling stop a few feet away. Levi stands in Lark’s saddle, passes the reins to Erwin, and leaps, rolling through the landing just as Leonhardt gets to her feet. The transformation is an explosion of light and heat and Levi shields his eyes momentarily against the onslaught. When he looks up, a skinless hand is reaching down to grab him and it takes everything in him not to draw blades and take those fingers off.

Leonhardt’s titan scoops him up, lifts him onto her shoulder, and once his hooks are anchored into her flesh - nape left compliantly unprotected - she takes off into a flat sprint that jars every bone in Levi’s body. She overtakes the scouts easily, clears almost a hundred yards with a single step, and Levi keeps his eyes fixed on the distant part of the wall where the lightning had struck.

He reaches up, curls his fingers around the key tucked away beneath his shirt.

_Please be safe._

* * *

Leonhardt has to leave her titan so they can easily scale the wall, as even at full titan height she’s nowhere near tall enough to vault it, and climbing it will take far too long. She peels herself out easily enough and it’s no trouble for Levi to grab ahold and launch them both up the vastness of the wall together.

What’s waiting for them at the top, though, Levi could never have prepared himself for.

Though Leonhardt managed to get them here in half the time it would have taken on horseback, they’re already looking at the aftermath of a battle. There are rows of scouts, the entirety of Hanji’s squad and several wall garrison soldiers, laid out atop the wall, unconscious with their faces badly scalded. Levi’s own burns - the remnants of his first encounter with Leonhardt on the expedition - twinge in painful sympathy.

Hanji’s unconscious. So is Mikasa. Moblit, Nifa, Lauda, Keiji, all of them.

Except for-

“Armin!”

The kid looks round from his place at Mikasa’s side, eyes wide with shock. He scrambles to his feet and hurries over, something like relief filling his wide eyes.

Until he sees Leonhardt. He skids to a clumsy halt, arms flailing wildly for balance.

Shocked is an understatement.

“I’ll explain everything later,” Levi says, gripping Armin’s shoulder tightly. “It’s a lot. But focus up, kiddo, what’s the situation?”

_Where’s Eren?_

Armin wrenches his eyes away from Leonhardt, takes a deep breath. “The colossal and the armoured showed themselves. Eren tried to fight them off but he couldn’t. They overpowered him and got away. We took too bad a hit to go after them.”

“Who were they?”

“Two scouts from our cadet class. Reiner Braun and Bertholdt Hoover.”

“Casualties?”

“One. Bertholdt ate him to steal his gear. Possibly a second, he took Ymir as well. She’s… Also a titan.”

“For fuck’s sake, is everyone from your class a goddamn titan?!” Levi pushes a hand through his hair. “How long ago did they get away?”

“Two hours? Two and a half, maybe? Reiner was still in titan form, only Eren and Bertholdt have gear so I assume they’ll take it from him to use. Eren was unconscious when they ripped him out. They’ll keep him injured so he can’t shift again.”

“Right.” Levi wants to scream. They could be so far away by now already, they can’t wait for reinforcements, but they only have one set of gear between the three of them. They could take it from one of the injured, but that isn’t really something Levi wants to do. They have no choice, though.

“I hate to ask, Armin, but can you fight? I’ll need…” He trails off. He can’t ask Armin to join them. Three scouts against two titans, one of them being the colossal? They don’t stand a fucking chance. Levi had been hard pressed to engage Leonhardt alone, had been severely injured as a result. Underestimating their enemies has only led to ruin. He doesn’t doubt Armin’s intelligence at all, but the kid’s a strategist, not a fighter.

“I can,” Armin says, even though Levi hadn’t finished. “I’ll fight. We can catch up, if…” He looks to Leonhardt. “I don’t understand,” he says softly.

“She’s useful,” Levi says. “Had to spring her, but the MPs don’t know I had a hand in it. We couldn’t just kill her, there’s too much we don’t know. She’s cooperative for the moment, but she knows I’ll kill her if she sets a foot wrong.”

“Right,” Armin says, rubbing a palm over his forehead. “The rest of the scouts?”

“Rerouting through Krolva with lifts. Still over three hours away.”

“Shit,” Armin swears. “We don’t have a choice, do we? We have to go after them alone.”

“Looks like it.”

“No, we don’t,” Leonhardt says. She takes a few breath. “The titan transformation isn’t infallible and you know how much energy it takes. Even after training it’s still not easy. Especially for Bertholdt, his titan takes a horrific amount of energy to call. If he’s shifted once already, it’ll be a while before he can manage it again. If they had stolen gear, they won’t have much gas either. They’ll dock somewhere, wait for their strength to come back, then Reiner will transform again and take them past Maria.”

“And after that?” Armin asks.

Leonhardt looks at him for a long moment. “There’s likely a ship waiting for them. If titans have been sighted past the walls, then more of my people have come to aid the fight.”

That’s not news to Levi, she’d alluded as much, but having it confirmed is another matter entirely.

“Armin,” she says, voice faltering slightly around the name, “was there an abnormal sighted at all? Did any of the wall garrison report one?”

“No,” Armin says. “But all the titans they did encounter were too far apart. Like they’d just wandered away from wherever they originated, somewhere in the south. Only one village got hit, Ragako. Where… Where Connie’s from.”

Leonhardt nods. “I understand.”

“Why the question about the abnormal?” Levi asks.

“Just curious.”

“They did mention…” Armin swallows. “Connie and the others in the 104th said when they first sighted the titans, Mike left to engage an abnormal they saw nearby. Said it looked like an ape, covered in fur. Is that relevant?”

Leonhardt swallows. “Very. He’s like us. Stronger, smarter. If Mike went up against him alone, then he’s dead.”

“Fuck,” Levi mutters. “No, he can’t be, he’s smart. He’s not that easy to take down.”

“Not if he went up against that titan,” Leonhardt argues. “No one can go up against him, he’s stronger than all of us.”

“I’m not just going to take your word for it,” Levi snaps. “Armin, what about the rest of the veterans that were with the 104th?”

“All dead.”

Nanaba and Gelgar. Gelgar was a bit of a cock but Nanaba… That stings.

“Damn it.”

What he wouldn’t give for Hanji or Erwin right now. To have Isabel and Petra with him, to have Mikasa conscious and ready to fight. To have _anyone_ except a traitor to rely on.

“Hope that he’s not waiting for us out there,” Leonhardt says. “If he’s gotten to them, we’ve got no chance of getting them back.”

“Who are you?” Armin breathes and Leonhardt looks away. For the first time since Levi entered the holding cell with her, something other than flat disinterest or anger sweeps over her face.

Guilt.

“We don’t have time for that,” Levi snaps. “How long do we have to catch them up?”

Leonhardt swallows hard, steels herself. “Maybe until sunset? At a push? They’ll want to wait until the titans are less active to try escaping. It’ll be too risky otherwise. That’s what they’ll do, I’m sure of it.”

“Well, you’d know best,” Levi says. “Who better to know how the enemy thinks than the enemy, right? Goddamn it. Armin, watch her, I need to check the others. Get us some gear.”

He leaves Leonhardt with Armin without a backward glance. He has the distinct feeling that Leonhardt won’t try anything while Armin’s there. He doesn’t know why, but there’s some fondness there he can’t understand. She’s left him alive more than once, after all. Maybe they can use that.

He moves over to Hanji first, but there’s no response. They’re out cold, expression pinched even in unconsciousness. Levi moves on. Mikasa’s on the end, head tilted to the side, pillowed on her ratty old scarf. Levi taps her face with the backs of his fingers, taps harder when she twitches, and then she gasps and rockets upright so hard she almost headbutts him.

“Eren!” She gasps, head whipping round when Levi grabs her shoulders.

“Hello,” he says tersely. “Shut up. Listen. Eren’s gone. Backup’s hours away. Can you fight?”

“Yes,” Mikasa says after only a second’s pause. “How the hell did you get here so fast?”

“Caught a ride on a titan. We’re taking Leonhardt with us. Can you keep your head long enough to cooperate?”

Mikasa blinks. “She’s-“

“Here to help. For now. It’s complicated and we don’t have time. All I need to know is whether or not you’re in any condition to fight with me.”

“I am,” Mikasa confirms, scowling. “How long-“

“Long enough. We have to move fast. It’s going to be just you and me, alright?”

“Alright.”

She’s so willing that Levi has to question her mental acuity, but at the same time he’s desperately grateful for it. But he shouldn’t doubt her. They share blood, after all.

Levi hasn’t had any time to come to terms with that. He’s not displeased by the revelation, not at all. He wishes he’d known sooner, recognised the name, but having family in Mikasa - while a very strange concept - is oddly reassuring. They’re Ackermans, and Levi’s always known there’s something different about his family; powerful, resilient, determined. He’s just pleased he finally has a name he can claim for himself.

He’ll tell her about it later. Once they’ve gotten Eren back.

If-

No.

 _When_.

“Armin!” Levi calls. “Come help me take off Hanji’s gear.”

It’s for a deeply personal reason that Levi chooses Hanji’s gear to go to Leonhardt. Mainly because he knows Farlan and Hanji have tinkered away to make it fast and responsive, but also because Hanji’s clearly badly injured, and if Levi removes their gear they won’t be able to join the rest of the scouts to follow them, possibly wounding themselves further. They’ll give him hell for it when they get back, but he’d prefer that over losing a friend any day.

They siphon off some gas from the other scouts’ gear sets too, trusting that Erwin and the others will be coming with supplies and they’ll have a chance to restock before riding out after them. The process takes far longer than Levi would like, every minute that passes making him anxious and twitchy, but they manage it and finally the three of them are ready to move out.

“Armin,” Levi says. “Stay here and watch over the others. Tell Erwin what we’ve done when they arrive. With any luck we won’t need them to ride out, but make sure they’re prepared to if we’re not back by then.”

“I will,” Armin promises. “Get him back safe.”

Mikasa hugs her friend and Levi punches his shoulder lightly. Leonhardt watches their farewell with dull eyes, moves to the edge of the wall and waits for them.

“Can you manage another change?” Levi asks.

“Yes.”

“Alright then.”

Leonhardt pitches over the edge of the wall without another word. Halfway down lightning strikes, and then her titan lands heavily on one knee, sending a rumble rippling up the wall, bending the surrounding trees with the shockwave. Levi and Mikasa vault down after her, gear whirring as they fire anchors and rappel down to meet her.

“Head for the forest,” Levi shouts into Leonhardt's ear, anchoring his hooks as he had before. Mikasa does the same on her other shoulder. “That’s the safest place for them to have stopped to wait for sundown.”

Leolnhardt dips her head and takes off into that thundering sprint once more.

Time is against them, the sun is already setting. But Levi’s not ready to give up just yet.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOOPS, this one took a bit longer to get out than I was expecting, my bad ;_;

Eren gasps awake to a palm against his cheek, and for a moment there’s only blinding light and that shock of heat from the skin touching his own, and then sound and sensation follow in a dizzying rush and he can’t quite choke down the gasp of pain before it slithers out of his throat.

“Easy,” says the owner of the shockingly warm palm, voice kept carefully low. “You’re alright. Just breathe.”

Eren does, sucks in a deep breath, trying to quell the rising nausea crawling up his throat, but all that gets him is a lungful of sickeningly acrid titan steam. He tries to sit up, can’t, retches painfully as the nausea sweeps over him, unhindered and visceral.

“Jeez, don’t vomit where I can see, I have a weak constitution.”

Ymir.

A hand slips beneath his shoulder and Eren blinks through tears of exertion and steam as he’s gently pulled into a sitting position. Ymir’s face swims into view, the deep fusion marks scored into her cheeks finally beginning to fade, and though her eyes are tight with worry, she manages a wry half smile when he’s finally able to focus on her face.

“You’re okay,” Eren breathes, relief fighting for placement over the nausea threatening to make his insides evacuate through his face by any means necessary. “I thought-”

Ymir holds a finger up to her lips, glances sideways with a meaningful quirk of her brows. Eren follows her gaze, past her shoulder to a pair of branches only a few meters away, where their captives stand watching the horizon, their attention for the moment diverted from their prisoners.

Rage wells up inside Eren, burning away the pain and the sickness. Ymir grips his shoulder tightly, shakes her head, and Eren has to grapple more violently with his overwhelming rage than he ever has in his life. Everything inside him, his own anger and his titan’s, is screaming at him to lunge for them, to hurt, to _kill_ , but his gear’s been taken away and he’s been left unarmed and…

Literally unarmed.

They’ve taken no risks with subduing him, his arms have been severed at the shoulders, far higher than he’s ever lost before, and someone - possibly Ymir, though her dexterity has been severely compromised by her own still-healing injuries - has bound his cloak around his torso to stem the worst of the blood flow while he heals.

He takes a deep breath, tears his gaze away from the two traitors and looks to Ymir, giving her a quick once-over. Her left hand is missing, reforming from halfway down her forearm, and her right leg has been severed just below the knee. Both are steaming freely though the healing rate is slow, due in most part to the savagery of her injuries and the energy it took to even keep her alive.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Eren murmurs, trying to focus on the spark of relief at finding his friend well, rather than the bitter, all-consuming rage that’s burning him up from the inside out. “We thought we’d lost you.”

“I’m fine,” Ymir says. “Well… No. But it’s whatever.” She waves her arm at him, the injured one, with a grimace. “Thanks for the concern, though, you’re a real standup guy.”

“Where are we?”

“Shh,” Ymir hisses, glancing over her shoulder once more. Neither Reiner nor Bertholdt look round and she exhales softly in relief. “We can talk, but keep it quiet. We stand a better chance of getting out of this if they think we’re still weak. And you’ve got more to heal than I do, so just keep your mouth shut, alright?”

Going toe to toe in a vicious brawl with the armoured titan - with _Reiner_ \- has taken a toll on Eren’s mind and body. The anger is still there, as well as the hot sting of betrayal that follows the foggy memory recalled through titan eyes. The gritty, violent struggle between their titans had clearly ended with Eren’s defeat and subsequent capture. Bertholdt had sent the colossal’s body crashing down on him, and Eren knows nothing more past that moment.

“As for where we are, I don’t know for sure,” Ymir murmurs. “But I think it's pretty safe to say we’re in that giant forest from the expedition. Considering we’re in a forest and it’s giant.”

Good point.

Eren peers over the edge of the branch they’re sat on and that should really have been his first clue. Only wall Maria can boast of trees with such wide boughs and massive trunks, overwhelming in both size and scale, and when he looks over the edge, there’s a flock of titans crowded around the base near the roots, gazing up at them with wide, hungry eyes.

All in all, not the best situation to be in. Armless, gearless, unable to shift until he’s regained his strength.

“I mean, I _think_ it’s a safe enough assumption, but the hell do I know?” Ymir mutters. “I was unconscious for most of the journey. Takes a lot of effort to heal disembowelment, just so you know.”

“Yeah, I know,” Eren murmurs.

“Right, I forgot that Annie perforated you.”

“Mm. Wasn’t the most…” Eren trails off, stares at her. “How the hell do you know it was Annie?”

Ymir’s lips thin into a grim line. “There’s a hell of a lot I should probably tell you, but we really don’t have time to get into it right now.”

“Is this anything to do with the… Memories I saw?”

“Yeah.” Ymir shudders and Eren can’t blame her. It hadn’t been a pleasant experience for either of them. “We get out of this alive and I’ll tell you anything you want to know. I’m sick of holding my tongue. I always figured that if I knew more than I let on, I’d be safe, that I could get out of whatever situation I needed to because I knew what was going on and no one else did. But if I’d said something before, we wouldn’t be here, so… Yeah, _mea culpe_ and all that.”

“Mea… what?”

“My bad.”

“...Right.” Honestly, yeah. If Ymir had information about the colossal and the armoured, she should have fucking said something, anything to clue them in. But Eren can’t sit here and blame her for not saying anything out of a desire to keep herself safe. He’d decided to keep his own mouth shut about her titan ability to do the same. He’s not entirely blameless in this.

“Any idea why we’ve stopped?” Eren asks, chancing another glance down below at the titans watching them ceaselessly. “They waiting for something?”

“Sundown, I’d wager,” Ymir says. “I think they have less gas than they were hoping. And from the looks of it, their titan transformations took more out of them than they were expecting, too. Better to wait for sundown when the titans are less active before risking any sort of getaway.” She looks to him. “What did we leave behind? Any chance there’s anyone ready to come after us?”

“I don’t know,” Eren says, frowning unhappily. “We only had squad Hanji, plus Mikasa and Armin and the 104th… I’d wager Bertholdt’s stunt injured a couple with the blast. Those who managed to get clear would probably need to wait for the rest of the scouts to arrive, but… I don’t know if they’d mount an expedition just to retrieve us.”

“Me, no,” Ymir says. “But you? Humanity’s hope? Yeah, they’ll come after you. Especially if Mikasa has anything to say about it. Her and your half-pint boyfriend. God, part of me is so happy I’m not gonna be there when they have to tell the Captain that they lost you, but I also kind of want to see that. Is that bad? That’s bad, right?

“Bad,” Eren confirms, heart twisting painfully at the thought of his sister. She must be going out of her mind with worry, and that’s if she’s even alright. Eren doesn’t know what happened after he lost consciousness, doesn’t know if Bertholdt wounded or killed anyone else, if Mikasa and Armin and the others are alright. And Levi… God, it’ll be so long before he finds out, stuck in Stohess alone, watching over Annie until they return. _If_ they return. Farlan, Isabel, and Petra, they won’t know. If anything happens to Eren out here, if anything’s happened to the others, they’ll just be stuck at HQ, waiting for any news…

He swallows hard. “Here’s hoping they come after us, then.”

“Well, not much we can do either way,” Ymir says. “I’m still a good few hours out from being able to shift again. We’ve got about… An hour? Two? Until sundown. Bar any unfortunate incidents and hoping that the titans below can’t figure out how to climb…” She shrugs. “Well, our chances aren’t great. Those two had to steal gear to get us away, Reiner took yours, so I’m guessing the gas reserves are probably shot to shit, even if we could get it off them. You waste too much unnecessarily, anyone ever tell you that?”

Eren frowns, glancing over to where Reiner and Bertholdt are standing, recognises his gear at once, strapped to Reiner’s harness. It rankles something awful to see Eren’s own gear on a _traitor_ , but there’s nothing he can do about it in his current condition.

“Might be a good thing, in this situation,” Eren murmurs back to her. “Means they need to wait to get their strength back before carrying us… Wherever the hell it is they need to get us to.”

Ymir swallows, looking more anxious than Eren’s ever seen her. “I have an idea, but I’m really hoping I’m wrong.”

“You want to share with the class or do I have to guess?”

“They want to get us off the island.”

Eren blinks. “...The hell’s an island?”

Ymir tips her head back, looks despairingly at the canopy like she can’t decide if she wants to laugh or cry. “I swear to god, in any other situation this would be hilarious, it really would. Look, all you need to know is that these guys are from outside the walls, and that’s where they want to take us. I sure as hell don’t want to go there, I imagine you probably don’t either. So the best thing we can do is keep them distracted long enough for either you or me to be able to shift and make a break for it.”

“You think we can make it?” It’s a tall order, but definitely possible, even if they’re far enough out to make it to the forest of giant trees, they’re still closer to Rose than they are to Maria, which gives them a fighting chance provided they’re strong enough to shift.

“I’m fast,” Ymir says. “And in better shape than you are. If it comes to it, I can get you back to the wall.”

“You’d do that?” He can’t really picture Ymir, who’s never cared for anyone other than herself and Christa, risking her life to get him back to the wall.

But then again, she exposed her biggest secret to save the 104th cadets and nearly died in the process. It seems like she possesses a far larger heart than she lets on.

“I owe you,” Ymir says after a moment. “I didn’t get a chance to talk to you before they shipped us out to detain us, and then everything went to shit.”

Understatement.

“But you saved my ass by keeping your mouth shut about me. So thanks.”

“Yeah, well,” Eren says, coughing into his shoulder, still trying to clear that bitter steam from his lungs. “I’d’ve wanted someone to do that for me, if I were you. I mean, you guys know what happened when my titan got discovered, it wasn’t pretty.”

“Still,” Ymir says, ruffling his hair obnoxiously. “You did me a solid and I won’t forget it. Which is why I’m gonna get you out of this. Once my leg’s healed and I can shift again, I’ll get you back to the wall. I’m faster than those two, even with the gear. It’ll be a struggle, but… Well, it’s the best option we’ve got.”

Eren trusts her. He can’t explain why, certainly doesn’t have cause to, but he’s sick of suspecting his comrades. First Annie, then Reiner and Bertholdt. Ymir, though, doesn’t seem to be one of them. Which raises more questions than it answers but Eren’s far too tired to voice any of them.

He turns away from her, towards Reiner and Bertholdt’s perch a short way away, startles when Reiner finally turns to face them and Eren’s next words die half-formed in his throat before they can reach his lips.

“You’re finally awake,” Reiner says, regarding the both of them coolly. “Welcome back.”

“Dirty bastards,” Ymir says before Eren can explode at them. He bites his tongue so hard steam hisses between his tightly clenched teeth and blood fills his mouth, but nothing can be gained from blindly charging forward. They’re trapped in enemy territory, deep in titan country, with two well-trained soldiers and titan shifters between them and home. If Eren has any sense, he’ll keep his mouth shut.

“Traitorous bastards!” Eren roars, spitting blood and steam.

God damn it.

Well, in for a penny, right?

“Sons of bitches, vile, misbegotten sacks of _shit!_ This whole time you’ve been fucking _traitors!_ We trusted you, we _cared_ about you! Any one of us would’ve died to keep you safe, and all this time you were playing us!”

“Eren,” Ymir says, catching hold of his shoulder. “Easy. You won’t get anything out of provoking them. I know it’s your default state, but can you at least _try_ not to lose your shit?”

Eren seethes, teeth grit so tight they grind and his jaw aches. Had he the use of his arms, he’d be vaulting across the gap between them to beat the worried expression off of Bertholdt’s face, to pound Reiner’s face into pulp for daring to look so disinterested.

 _”Why?”_ The word slips out from between Eren’s teeth before he can stop it and the sound of it is wounded, aggrieved. “How could you do it? We _trusted_ you.”

Bertholdt leans back against the trunk of the tree he’s perched in, slithers down until he’s seated and can wrap his arms around his legs. He closes his eyes, actually has the gall to turn away from them. Reiner himself can’t meet Eren’s gaze. They look ashamed, as they should, but all it does is spark Eren’s simmering fury into something wild, uncontrollable. His wounded arms itch and burn, hissing steam through the fabric of his cloak. He wants to rip them both apart, make them suffer for what they’ve done. 

He trusted them. 

“How?” Eren demands. “Why do you hate us so much? Hundreds of people, families, _children_... All dead because of you.”

“Eren,” Ymir cautions again, hand tightening on his shoulder. He tries to shrug her off but she holds firm. “We’re not going to get the answers we want. Just stand down, you’re giving me a headache.”

Eren wrenches his shoulder out of her grip with more success this time, though he nearly overbalances without his arms to steady him. “I won’t. I have to know.” He turns his glare back on the bastards who can’t even look at him. “What the hell kind of evil are you that you could do something so horrifying and then spend the next eight years pretending like you’re one of us. Marco’s dead because of you! Mina and Thomas, hundreds of others! My _mom_ -“ Eren’s voice cracks shamefully and he chokes back a sob, eyes filling with tears he has no hands to wipe away. They fall, unchecked, and he can’t do anything about it.

“The world’s more complicated than you could ever know,” Reiner says quietly. “You people inside the walls, you’ll never understand. You’ve been so safe. You don’t know horror like we do.”

“It’s not a fucking competition of suffering,” Ymir snaps, suddenly emboldened, and Eren’s viciously pleased to see the fury that twists her expression. It’s good to know he’s not fighting alone. “You don’t get to kick down the walls just because you’re sore that you got left outside. That’s not our fault. You’ve let the sins of the past twist your future. It’s not for us to pay that debt.”

“What sins?” Eren demands. “What are you talking about?”

Ymir doesn’t look at him, doesn’t look away from Reiner who’s looking back at her with renewed interest, like he’s seeing her properly for the first time. 

“You can hold that against me,” Ymir says. “But not the rest of it.”

“It’s been failure after failure,” Reiner says. “But at least bringing the two of you back with us will count for something. And _someone_ has to answer for it.”

“Well, it’s sure as shit not going to be me,” Ymir snaps. “I did my time, you’ve had blood from me, so you can consider _my_ debt repaid.”

“Can we?” Reiner asks, brow arching. “The fact that you’re sitting here talking to me says otherwise.”

Ymir opens her mouth but no sound comes out. Her teeth snap together with an audible snap and she looks about ready to lunge for Reiner and rip his throat out with her teeth. But she can’t move as injured as she is. Eren sympathises. He, too, would like nothing more than to tackle Reiner from the branch and let the titans below have him, but he hasn’t got any fucking arms so there’s not much he can do in the way of assault.

“Well,” Ymir says, taking a deep breath. “You’ve got me there. Is that what this is? Revenge? Kind of petty if you ask me.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Eren demands. “Revenge for what?”

Ymir shakes her head, smiling thinly. “Few years back now, i… I killed one of their own. It was… Well, I didn’t mean to do it, but I wasn’t exactly in control of my own actions back then.”

“It’s not personal,” Reiner says flatly. “Trust me. I’m not thrilled it turned out to be you. Wish it didn’t have to be like this.”

“It doesn’t have to be like anything!” Eren snaps. “I don’t care what your reasons are, you killed-”

“Oh, give it a _rest_ ,” Ymir groans. “Eren, you’re not going to get any answers. Look at them, they don’t care. They were trained for this shit, they aren’t going to feel guilty just because you shouted real loud.”

No, but if Eren stays silent he’s going to go insane. As much as there’s no explanation that could make up for what they’ve done, Eren needs to hear it. He needs to know what could have driven them to such abhorrent actions, he needs to know why his mom had to die, why he had to lose everything. He has to know, he’ll go mad if he doesn’t.

“You really should calm down,” Reiner says and actually has the fucking stones to look concerned. “It’s been how long since any of us have had any sleep? A day? Longer? Or food, for that matter.” He shakes his head. “It’s not surprising that you’re stressed, any soldier would be in your position. Even the best soldier wouldn’t know how to act in this situation, right?” He smiles and Eren’s left feeling like he’s walked into some strange sort of reality where nothing makes sense any more.

“What in the goddamn hell are you talking about?” Eren asks. “Wh- Is this a _joke_ to you?!”

“Hey, now,” Reiner says, holding his hands up. “I told you, I get it. Just stay calm, alright? I know you’re stressed, but it’s gonna be alright. We’ll get out of this just fine.”

It’s almost a mockery of the way Eren had tried to calm him back at the castle, before he’d transformed and thrown everything Eren thought he knew out the window. Eren stares at him and Reiner stares back, expression shifting into something placid, possibly intended to be reassuring, but all it serves to do is make Eren angrier. 

“Oh,” Ymir breathes. “I get it now.”

Oh, _good_. At least _someone_ has a fucking clue what’s going on, because Eren’s about as lost as it’s possible to be. At this rate, he’s going to throw himself off the fucking branch and take his chances with the titans below. At least _they_ make sense, hungry beasts who’s sole nature is to feed on humans. No ulterior motives, no hidden agendas. He’d rather face them down than stomach another minute of whatever bullshit Reiner is trying to feed him.

“I was starting to wonder,” Ymir says, hard gaze fixed on Reiner. “Someone as honest as him, hiding such a dirty secret. Bertholdt had it easy, he just kept quiet, hid behind the friendly, outgoing guy. Easy to keep your secrets if you hardly ever talk, right? But _Reiner_...” She shakes her head. “He’s been playing the soldier role for too long. He’s forgotten who he is.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means our friend here’s gotten lost,” Ymir says. “Somewhere along the way it got too difficult for him to stomach what he was doing. He became the soldier, became the scout he was pretending so desperately to be. He can’t reconcile the two different roles inside himself. His mind won’t let him. The guilt’s eating him up inside, twisting his brain. And judging by the look on Bertholdt’s face, this isn’t the first time it’s happened, either.”

Bertholdt looks away. “Reiner,” he says softly. “You need to snap out of it. We’re not soldiers. We’re warriors.”

It’s like the word brings an almost physical change out in Reiner. His entire bearing alters and the difference is so jarring Eren can hardly fathom that he’s looking at the same person. Reiner’s back stiffens, his eyes widen, and then the concern and worry are wiped away, replaced by something hard and unyielding, something belonging in the eyes of the most veteren scouts, the ones who’ve seen so much death that it can no longer touch them.

Whoever this is scowling down at them now, it’s not Reiner. Or it is, just not the Reiner Eren knows. This is who he was before he lost himself inside the walls, the soldier sent to ruin them.

If that was even their goal in the first place.

He needs to think like Armin. He needs to look past what’s in front of him, to see the whole picture, or as much of it as he can grasp. There’s so much he doesn’t know still, but he knows enough to form as much of an image as possible. Whoever Bertholdt and Reiner are, and Annie, too, they’re enemies, that much is obvious. Where they come from, the powers they wield, they have to know where they come from. They mentioned being left outside the walls, but more than that Eren can’t even make an educated guess on.

They must have been sent to gather information. Maybe to reach Eren’s father? Why would a doctor from an outlying district possess the power of a titan? Why was Eren’s father found outside the walls? Why did Eren see him in Ymir’s memories?

He takes a deep breath. So much he still doesn’t know… He needs to get back to wall Rose. Somehow, he needs to get back. He needs to make it to the basement. He needs to understand. 

“What are you going to do with us?”

Reiner fixes that steel-eyed gaze on Eren and the harshness of it is almost shocking. “We’re taking you back to our hometown, I suppose you could call it. What happens to you after that isn’t for us to know. But for a start you’ll give back the powers that you stole.”

“I didn’t steal anything,” Eren snaps. “I never even _wanted_ this power. You can fucking _have_ it.”

“Eren,” Ymir cautions. “I wouldn’t offer that so freely.”

Something in her tone makes him turn, frown creasing his brow. She looks back at him, a shadow passing over her own expression, and the dread in her eyes makes his skin prickle.

“Why?” He asks slowly. “What happens if I give it up?”

“You can’t just give it up,” Bertholdt says quietly. “Once the power’s given to you, it’s yours until you die. Only by dying can you pass it on.”

Only by…? But… Eren’s father…

“How is it passed on?”

Ymir shakes her head. “Eren-”

_”Tell me!”_

The three of them remain silent. Even Reiner, this version of himself that makes Eren sick to look at, can’t hold his gaze, averts his eyes like a coward.

“You’ll find out,” Reiner mutters. “It’s almost sundown. We can move soon.”

“Fucking try it,” Eren snaps. “If you think I’m just going to let you take me, you don’t know me at all. I’ll die before I go with you and that’s a fucking promise.”

He might not be able to fight back well, might not even be able to run, but Eren’s never backed down from a fight he can’t win. Either he’ll go down fighting as well as he can, or he won’t go down at all.

He promised he’d come back. If he can’t, then he hopes Levi knows that he fought until the bitter fucking end.

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Eren vows. “Neither of us are. And you can stand there and act like you’re _warriors_ or whatever the hell you think you are, but you’re not. You’re _monsters_ and I will _never_ let you forget what you’ve done.”

Reiner lunges for him.

Eren hits the branch hard, Reiner’s fist connecting hard with his jaw and snapping his head back roughly. He cries out, can’t even raise his arms to fend him off, and it’s no struggle at all for Reiner to force him onto his front, to pin him so he can’t move. He gasps into the roughened bark as Reiner kneels against his back, sees Bertholdt wrestling Ymir down similarly, and Eren’s stomach drops as the true reality sinks in.

He can’t fight. There’s nothing he can do. He really isn’t going to be able to make it home.

“We don’t have much gas,” Reiner grits out, digging his knee harder into Eren’s spine and forcing a pained gasp out of his lungs. “And there’s still an hour to sunset. I could probably change in about two, but I won’t be at full strength again for a while.”

“We don’t have a choice,” Bertholdt says. “Much longer and the scouts will be after us. It’s either risking it against titans or against the corps, Reiner, and I know which one I’d prefer.”

“Cowards!” Eren roars, fighting back tears of grief and rage. He has to fight - can’t, but he _has_ to. He has to. He can’t let this happen. “Fucking cowards! Traitors! _Damn you.”_

Reiner seizes the back of his cloak, nearly choking him with it. Still, Eren doesn’t let up, spits out curse after curse. “Fuck you, fuck _you_. Murderers. Traitors. You took _everything_ from me.”

“Shut him up,” Bertholdt begs. “Please.”

Reiner’s weight shifts and Eren braces himself for the blow that will incapacitate him. He can’t do anything else.

He thinks of Levi, of Mikasa. Of Armin and Farlan and Isabel, of the friends he’ll never see again. He hopes they’ll know that he went down fighting.

“Wait!” Bertholdt cries. “I can’t- Reiner, look!”

“Is it the scouts?” Reiner’s gone from Eren’s back in an instant and he rolls hard to the side, dragging a painful breath into his lungs the moment Reiner releases him.

From here, he can just about see the far horizon, beyond which wall Rose lies, unreachable, and behind it the people Eren left behind, who he was taken from. Who he’ll never see again.

But there’s a figure fast approaching and Eren can’t push himself up on his ruined arms to get a better look, but the figure is huge, towering tall and sprinting towards them at incredible speed. Eren stares, eyes wide, and though he tries he can’t parse what it is he’s seeing, he just can’t fathom it.

“It’s Annie,” Bertholdt breathes. “My god, it’s Annie! Reiner, she can get us out of here, we’re saved!”

An impossible scenario, one Eren can neither fathom nor explain, but as Annie’s towering titan reaches them, she screams that awful, grating screech, summons the gathered titans away from the base of the trees below them. Eren watches with wide eyes and a heavy heart, mind unable to parse what’s happening before his eyes.

An anchor fires, digs deep into the bark beside Eren’s head. A moment later a streak of green is rocketing forward and Reiner cries out as a jagged, gaping slash is opened up across his chest. He staggers, falls back, and pitches over the branch to the ground below.

“Reiner!” Bertholdt cries, a moment before Mikasa crashes into his back, sending them both careening off the branch after Reiner, her blade hewn through his shoulder. Ymir gasps as she’s freed from Bertholdt’s grasp, rolls hard to her feet and scrambles closer to Eren.

“What the fuck?” She demands. _”What the fuck?”_

“I don’t-”

“Look alive, brats, we don’t have all day!” Levi shouts, zipping back up to the branch, blood steaming from his blades. “Mikasa! Leave them, let’s go! Leonhardt can’t fight off all the titans at once!”

As much as Eren is so glad to see them, he doesn’t have time to rejoice in their arrival. Annie is indeed fending off the titans that had been so fixated on them just moments before, two dozen having streamed out of the trees to set upon her. She’s fighting valiantly, limbs hardened and shearing through titan flesh, but the sheer number is too much for her.

“Mikasa, let’s _go!”_ Levi roars, hauling Eren up by the cloak. “I can’t carry both and fly, can we _move!”_

Mikasa lands on the branch a moment later, blood streaked across her face. She touches Eren’s arm briefly before turning to Levi with a nod. “I’ll clear the titans away, we’ll need her to get back.”

Levi nods. “I’ll keep watch, go.”

She’s away in the next breath, whirring toward the titans ripping at Annie’s legs like rabid wolves. Once she’s gone, Levi turns to Ymir and Eren and he opens his mouth to say something that’s probably important and Captain-like, but Eren had been convinced only a few minutes ago that he’d never see Levi again. 

He lunges forward, doesn’t care that they’re covered in blood and dirty, doesn’t care that he’s missing most of his arms and spitting steam like a kettle. He lunges forward, crashes bodily into Levi and catches him in as desperate a kiss he can manage.

“Fuck- Easy,” Levi says, head jerking back. “Are you trying to headbutt me?”

“Shut _up_ , I am so happy to see you.”

“Yeah, likewise. At least, I _was_ until you tried to bite my face off, fucking hell.”

“Hey, lovebirds,” Ymir snaps. “We have a problem.”

Levi leans round to look at her, follows her gaze over the branch to where Reiner and Bertholdt are lying in bloody, steaming heaps on the ground. This far up it’s difficult to see, but when orange energy begins to prickle across Reiner’s body, Levi swears viciously under his breath and grabs both Eren and Ymir around the waist.

“Leonhardt, get ready to run!”

It’s a difficult maneuver, would be impossible for anyone other than Levi and his ridiculous strength, but even with that it’s hard for him to fly well with both of them weighing him down. He’s able to fire his hooks, but the wires creak and strain under the added weight, but Mikasa manages to slice through the nape of the last titan clinging to Annie’s leg and as they approach, Annie opens her palms to catch them.

 _”Move!”_ Levi roars and Annie turns on her heel, sprints away from the forest even as her injured limbs hiss steam.

Lightning strikes behind them as Mikasa lands in Annie’s palm beside them. She and Levi draw their blades, twin expressions of grim determination on their faces.

“They won’t pursue if they’re smart,” Mikasa says. “Bertholdt’s injured, Reiner should move to get him away from any titans in the area. They’re in no position to try and catch us like this.”

“Shit never goes the way we want it to,” Levi says. “I’m not going to relax until we’re back behind the walls. Not even then, we know they can break through.”

“Let them try,” Mikasa says fiercely. “We’ll be ready for them.” She moves away, zips up to Annie’s shoulder, grasping a lock of her hair for balance. “No sign of them. They’ve not left the trees.”

“I don’t buy it,” Levi mutters. “It’s too easy. Why just let us go?”

“Why wouldn’t they?” Ymir asks, pushing hair away from her face and looking a bit green in the face from the repetitive bump and sway of Annie’s breakneck sprint. “They’ll dock somewhere safe, wait for us to come to them. You’re trying to retake Maria, right? All they need to do is settle in and wait for us to come to them.”

“Then we need to make sure we’re ready to fight them,” Levi says, sneering. “We don’t leave them alive next time.”

“Agreed,” Eren says. “But I have to ask-”

“Later,” Levi says. “I have a list as long as my damn arm of explanations I need to give and I only want to give it once. Hold the questions until we’re back behind the wall, alright?”

It’s fair enough, though Eren’s burning with adrenaline and curiosity both. Namely as to why they’re currently being carried back towards the wall by _Annie_ of all people. And how she’d gotten away from the MPs, and why Levi and Mikasa are with her. All things he’s desperate to know the answers to, but he really is exhausted. Judging by the even darker circles under Levi’s eyes, far more pronounced than usual, he’s not the only one.

A giddy laugh stutters out of Eren’s mouth. Ymir and Levi both look at him in alarm. Even Annie’s giant eyes flick down to stare at him.

“Hi,” Eren says to Levi, a stupid grin stretching across his face.

Levi looks back at him, fondness chasing away the haunted look that had been plastered across his face, pinching his expression into something hard and angry. He softens considerably as he looks back at Eren, coming dangerously close to smiling. “Hey yourself. Miss me?”

“You have _no_ idea.”


	8. Chapter 8

Leonhardt nearly makes it to the wall before she runs out of strength and Levi can’t fault her for it. She’s done more than anyone should have to without food or rest in between, since her capture in Stohess and their escape. She staggers about fifty meters out from the walls and Levi and Mikasa get Eren and Ymir out of her palms before she can collapse and crush them.

She manages to pull herself out of the nape and Levi helps her down so she doesn’t hit the ground and kill herself from the fall before they can question her. That, and she’s truly helped them today. Without her, there likely would have been a vicious battle to rescue Eren and Ymir, the full might of the scouts needing to be assembled just to mount the retrieval. As much as Levi still wants her dead, he’s grateful for her presence.

Between the two of them, Levi and Mikasa get their three exhausted and injured companions the rest of the way to the wall without much difficulty. This close to the structure there's plenty of buildings to anchor to, and though the added weight strains their wires, they manage it with only minimum struggle. Atop it, waiting for them, is a detachment of scouts accompanied by Erwin, who’s severe expression melts into something proud and relieved when the five of them mount the wall, dirty and exhausted, and some of them still missing limbs.

“Well done,” Erwin says, clapping him on the shoulder. “Armin explained everything. Retrieving the both of them with just the three of you-“

“Yeah, it’s great, can this wait?” Levi pushes his hand off, wanting nothing more than to find the nearest horizontal surface and become one with it. Forever. “Get Ymir and Eren checked over, they’ve been through hell. What’s the deal with squad Hanji?”

“Already part way back to HQ,” Erwin says. “We moved them immediately. Hanji woke up when we got here, started yelling about strangling you for taking their gear.”

Levi almost sags with relief. “Good. That’s… Good.”

“We can speak more once we get back. I trust Leonhardt will cooperate?”

Levi glances over. Eren and Ymir are being led towards the lifts, but Mikasa remains with Leonhardt, blades drawn though the girl looks about thirty seconds from passing out. Levi doesn’t blame her, but Leonhardt’s already proved her worth. It would be stupid to trust her, but Levi’s not concerned about her suddenly turning on them, strangely enough. She’s got her own agenda, one that doesn’t match up with her comrades, and Levi’s curious about what it actually is that she wants.

Hopefully they’ll find out. But before they do, Levi wants a fucking shower and some food. And to change his bandages. He feels _disgusting_. That, and his shoulder is really starting to burn. He really has seen better days.

“What’s the plan for your lot?” Levi asks against his better judgement, though said judgement is getting a tad foggy after fuck knows how long without sleep or a decent meal. Honestly right now someone could tell him the sky was green and he’d just nod and accept it.

“We’ll be keeping watch for the time being,” Erwin says. “The wall garrison will resume their customary patrols once all titans within the perimeter have been dealt with. Until then, we stand guard. But at least there truly is no breach, although that raises more questions than it answers about where they came from.”

It does, but only in part. Leonhardt gave that piece of information away in her cell, but Levi has neither the energy nor the desire to give his explanation now. But it seems like rest and food are further away than he’d thought. “Alright,” Levi says, rubbing a hand over his face. Stubble scratches lightly against his palm and he grimaces in discomfort. “Let me resupply and I’ll join the-“

“You’ll do no such thing,” Erwin says. “Levi, you are verging on a dangerous amount of hours with no sleep. You’ll return to HQ with the rest of your squad.”

“And if the colossal and the armoured attack?”

Erwin points out over wall Rose. Levi follows his arm, can’t quite parse what he’s looking at through hazy eyes, until a small group of scouts catches his eye, a short way past the first copse of trees within the wall’s boundary.

“A warning system, only temporary,” Erwin says. “Similar to the scouting formation. We have scouts at intervals reaching back to our headquarters. If the colossal and the armoured are sighted, we’ll relay a message down the line and ride out to meet them.”

“Huh,” Levi says. “Alright, that works, I suppose. You really can spare me, then?”

“You shouldn’t even have come in the first place,” Erwin says. “Injured as you are.”

“It’s barely even a flesh wound,” Levi sniffs. “I’ve had worse.”

“That’s not the reassurance you think it is.” Erwin nudges his uninjured shoulder. “Go. Rest. We’ll send word if there's any news. And we’ll speak later about what to do with Leonhardt. For now, I trust you to use your best judgement to restrain her.”

Levi’s “best judgement” is a bit of a murky concept right now, but he at least knows that stowing Leonhardt in one of the basement cells is going to solve _that_ problem. He’ll post some scouts to watch over her, too. That is, he will if Mikasa doesn’t make Leonhardt her business.

“Alright, I’m gone,” Levi says, turning away. “Please try not to have a crisis for at least forty-eight hours.”

Erwin chuckles softly. “I’ll do my best.”

Levi ignores the lifts completely, anchors his hooks and rappels down the northern side of the wall with a yawn that threatens to dislocate his entire jaw. There’s a wagon down below and he’s pleased to see Horse and Lark hitched quite happily to the back of it, the both of them enjoying some rather enthusiastic pets from Eren, despite the fact that he still does not - as of yet - have his hands back. But he’s not letting that stop him.

Levi drops into the wagon with a grunt, beside Mikasa who nods in greeting but doesn’t take her eyes off of Leonhardt. Leonhardt does not care in the slightest, has already apparently dozed off which Levi absolutely cannot blame her for. If he weren’t so particular about sleeping around other people, he’d do the same. The ride back is going to be awkward enough as it is, he could use the sleep, but he won’t rest until he’s clean and eaten something, at the very least.

“Eren, stop rubbing your weird arms all over the horses,” he says, hauling Eren back by his cloak. Damn thing’s soaked through with blood, leaves Levi’s palm tacky with it. He grimaces and wipes his hand of Eren’s pants leg.

“Thanks,” Eren says dryly, settling down in his seat and resting his reforming arms on his knees. They’ve not got much left to heal, just a few inches of forearm left on both sides until they begin to reform hands, but Ymir - who is one hundred percent unconscious on the bottom of the wagon and snoring like she doesn’t give two shits about the rest of the world - has reformed everything bar a couple of fingers.

“You should get some rest while you can,” Levi says as the wagon jerks into motion. “Because I’m dunking you straight in the bath when we get back.”

“Oh, bath…” Eren says dreamily. “ _Please_. Also food. I’m _starving_.”

Unsurprising. He’s been moving nonstop since… God, day before yesterday? Longer? Since they left HQ for Stohess and it’s been so long since Levi’s slept he’s not even sure what day it is anymore. Add a couple of titan transformations onto that, and Eren’s past few days have been an utter shitshow. He’s well within his rights to be exhausted, even Levi’s feeling it and he can boast a higher endurance than most. Mikasa, too, is more subdued than usual from her exhaustion, though she’s yet to take her eyes off of Leonhardt.

Levi kicks her lightly in the shin. Her eyes flick reluctantly to him, and the distraction is successful.

“Question,” he says. She nods, looking at him expectantly. “Which one of your parents was an Ackerman? Mom or dad?”

She frowns at him and Eren looks up at the both of them curiously, though he’s probably not for consciousness judging by the hazy look in his eyes. “My dad,” Mikasa finally says, looking fifteen different shades of suspicious. “Why?”

“He have any siblings?”

“I… Yeah, I think so,” she says, looking mildly surprised, like the memory’s only just coming to her. Levi can understand that, knowing what he does about her bloody past. “They didn’t talk much, as far as I know. My dad didn’t say much about it, just that he moved nearer the mountains because it was dangerous for our family in the city.”

“Why?” Eren mumbles softly, pitching sideways until his cheek is propped against Levi’s shoulder. Levi doesn’t move him away, never would, and for a brief moment Levi lets himself forget that they’re both exhausted and sore and filthy, rests his own cheek lightly on the top of Eren’s head. Mikasa’s eyes soften at the sight of it so Levi doesn’t feel the need to threaten her to keep her mouth shut about this apparent and frankly nauseating soft side he’s developed.

Disgusting.

“Something about our family name,” Mikasa says. “Ackermans were hated only a few years ago but he never said why.”

“Harsh,” Eren mumbles. Levi’s soft snort of amusement ruffles his hair lightly.

“Any reason why you asked?”

“Mm,” Levi hums, then hesitates for a long moment. “I… Well, I found out some stuff recently. Really recently. Like earlier today, recently. Didn't know before, obviously, but…” He doesn’t know why he’s prevaricating so badly. He’s not exactly nervous, isn’t even sure he knows how to be, but he respects the hell out of Mikasa and he sort of wants her approval, in a way. Not just as Eren’s… Whatever he is. This is almost more important than that. This makes them family, something Levi’s never really had for himself. Yes, he’s made one in Isabel and Farlan and now in Eren and the others, but this is the only real family Levi had left to speak of, and he’s desperate for it to work out okay.

He’s really not sure why it matters so much.

“So my mom’s surname was Ackerman,” Levi says before he can talk himself out of it. “Which was a bit of a surprise, let me tell you.”

Mikasa’s eyes widen almost comically. Eren drags his heavy head up from Levi’s shoulder to stare it him, bleary eyes struggling to focus for a moment, but once they do his sister’s shock is mirrored in his own.

Levi shrugs. “Okay, I wasn’t _that_ shocked, but yeah, close enough.”

“Oh my god,” Eren breathes. “That explains _so_ much.”

“It really does,” Mikasa echoes. “Like, a ridiculous amount. So our parents were siblings?”

“Seems like it.”

“So that makes us, what, cousins?”

“Think so.”

Mikasa is quiet for a long moment, processing, and Eren holds back his own undoubtedly enthusiastic response in an oddly aware moment of restraint. He looks between the both of them, looking absolutely thrilled by the revelation, but it’s Mikasa’s reaction that Levi really wants to know about. It’s her, after all, that he’s related to.

“It really does explain a lot,” Mikasa says. “We’re… Similar, in some ways.”

“Try _every_ way,” Eren says. “God, now that I know, you guys even _look_ alike. How did none of us figure this out?”

“We had no reason to even suspect it,” Mikasa says. “We couldn’t have been further away from each other. Born near the mountains, born in the underground…”

“Funny how shit works out, huh?” Levi says. “Can’t say I’m unhappy about it. Of all the brats I could end up related to… I’m glad it was you.”

Mikasa’s lips twitch into a faint smile. “Yeah, likewise. Explains why I’m always so ready to kick your ass, too. Definitely related.”

“This is so weird,” Eren says. “Cool, though. I can’t believe you’re an Ackerman. Makes hell of a lot of sense, though.”

Levi nods, quietly satisfied by Mikasa’s acceptance. He’d not been expecting joy, not from her repressed ass - god, he really should have suspected something sooner, they are _so_ alike - and her quietly pleased response is more than he could have hoped for. Acceptance is not something Levi’s overly used to. Isa and Farlan have him enough, but it’s only in recent months that Levi’s managed to find a place for himself where he’s not judged for his past, for his shortcomings and bad temper and moody temperament.

Family is what you make it, whether found or formed. Levi likes this one a lot more than he ever thought he would.

* * *

Eren is beyond unconscious when their wagon rolls into the grounds of HQ after sunset and Levi’s never been so happy to see the old fort in his life. He hasn’t as of yet shoved Eren off of him, even though his drool has long since seeped through Levi’s jacket and shirt, but the moment their wagon rolls to a stop he’s carefully pushing Eren away and the brat just keeps snoring. They’re met at the gates by Mariska and Farlan, the former looking haggard and unkempt and that’s how Levi knows Hanji’s conscious and alright, because if there’s one person who can flap the unflappable doctor, it’s them.

Farlan claps him on the shoulder as he jumps from the wagon, helps Mikasa down, then gives Leonhardt a rather puzzled once over.

“You picking up strays now? Who’s the girl?”

“Female titan,” Levi says and Farlan takes a rather impressive step back. “Yeah, don’t get too close. I’m gonna get her to the cell. I want two guards watching at all times, four hour rotations.”

“I’ll make it happen,” Farlan promises. “Am I getting Eren to the infirmary?”

“Yes,” Mariska says at once, lifting Eren bodily out of the wagon before Mikasa or Levi can assist her. That’s… Interesting. And also terrifying. Levi hadn’t known she was that strong. He really should be more careful about how often he answers her back in future. “Bring Ymir too, one of you.”

“I got her,” Mikasa says, lifting Ymir into her arms. Neither Ymir nor Eren stir at all when lifted.

Levi’s not so kind to his charge, flicks Leonhardt hard on the forehead to rouse her. She startles awake, eyes snapping open, and the jump from unconscious to aware is so jarring it nearly gives Levi whiplash by proxy.

“Get up,” he tells her. “Follow me. Try anything and you lose your head.”

Leonhardt climbs down from the wagon and dutifully follows Levi through the castle. It’s quiet, long after lights out, so the halls aren’t full of scouts and prying eyes, and even better the 104th aren’t milling around so Levi doesn’t have to explain her presence just yet. But he’ll have to offer something to the scouts who come to watch her, especially if she tries to escape.

He unlocks one of the cell doors and lets her in and she looks surprised at the cleanliness of the area. The bed’s missing fresh linens, but Levi’ll send someone down with those shortly. Judging by the exhausted slant to her shoulders, though, Leonhardt doesn’t much care about blankets and just that the surface is vaguely horizontal and not covered in shit.

“Hungry? I’ll send someone down with something.”

Leonhardt murmurs her thanks. Levi hadn’t been expecting that. But maybe this is now a case of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”. Granted, Leonhardt hadn’t lifted a finger against Hoover and Braun, but she’d acted against them all the same, so maybe that counts for something.

But then again, the lives of Levi’s soldiers counted for something, too.

He has to remember that she’s not one of them. She’s a weapon, a source of information, one they’ll use and then discard. Levi’s not upholding his end of their bargain, he’s already made that decision

“Do I need to cuff you?” He asks, for good measure.

“No,” Leonhardt says, sitting down gingerly on the threadbare mattress in the center of the cell. “Where would I go? You’d cut me down before I reached the wall.”

“You catch on quick.” Levi nods his approval. “Thanks for today, I’ll most likely kill you in the morning. Sleep tight.”

He leaves Leonhardt in the dark and true to Farlan’s word, two scouts pass him to take the first watch. He leaves her in their care and washes his hands of the whole affair until first light at the very _least_. Next stop, though, before he can rest and eat, is the infirmary, where pretty much everyone he cares about is currently holed up because none of them can stay okay longer than five fucking minutes.

Mariska’s not there at the entrance to bar him entry, so he washes up and slips inside, grimacing at how full the sickbeds are. It’s mainly Hanji’s squad, though Isabel’s still here, it’s only been a week since her i jury after all and considering she’d tried to sneak to Stohess with them and Levi’d hauled her off her horse to stop her, she may well have opened her stitches like an idiot.

Ymir and Eren are laid out on cots, dead to the world, with the Christa and Mikasa by their sides respectively. Armin, too, has made an appearance, and Mariska glowers at Levi as he approaches but doesn’t shoo him away.

“No more visitors,” she snaps. “This is an infirmary, not a damn hotel.”

“I’m checking on my subordinates,” Levi says, absolutely not above pulling rank for this. “I have every right to be here.”

Mariska scowls but relents, continues doing… whatever it is she’s doing to Eren. Checking he’s alive, probably. He was the last time Levi looked, but the brat’s physically incapable of looking after himself or keeping himself safe so it’s honestly anyone’s guess.

“Careful if you start poking this one,” Levi says with a jerk of his head in Ymir’s direction. “Also a titan, just so you know.”

“Of course she is,” Mariska says flatly. “Anyone else I should know about?”

“Nah, you’re good, that’s all of them. All who’re still in our ranks anyway.”

Mariska mutters darkly under her breath. Levi chooses to ignore her. “How are they holding up?”

“Exhausted, hungry, dehydrated,” Mariska snaps. “Poor hygiene. I don’t know what sort of operation you’re running, but I could have you brought up on charges for this. Absolutely abysmal, having them serve in these conditions. I wouldn’t treat my greatest enemy like this. I’ll be having words with the Commander.”

Should be fun. “Please do,” Levi says. “Make it painful, yeah?”

He’s really in no fit state to be here, but he’s not just going to go do his own think while Eren and the others are locked down in Mariska’s care. At the very least, those in the adjacent sick beds are asleep, which means Levi doesn’t have to field probing questions until tomorrow. He has a sneaking suspicion, though, that Hanji’s less “asleep” and more “sedated”.

Handy trick, he’ll need to remember that.

“I’m keeping them here tonight,” Mariska says firmly. “You all go, no overnight visits, I won’t allow it. You need rest, they need rest, they can’t get it if you’re here.”

“Loud and clear, Doc,” Levi murmurs. “Come on, brats, let’s go. We can come back tomorrow, bright and early.”

Mikasa and Christa look desperately reluctant and Levi sympathises, but Mariska’s scary when she wants to be and Levi’s not actually that certain he could take her in a fight right now. Better to clear out the way and come back once she’s had a chance to assess their two titan shifters in peace. Besides, tomorrow Hanji and Isabel will be awake and Levi can… Go through the laborious process of explaining everything. Fuck.

That’s going to be so much fun. _Not_.

Well, nothing for it. Tonight, at least, Levi can clean up, shower, shave, eat. Try and decompress and pretend his mind and heart aren't stuck in the infirmary with Eren, where the idiot spends most of his time these days. How long this is going to go on for, Levi doesn't know, but if Eren keeps getting hurt like this then Levi’s apt to go mad and strangle the moron with his own gear harness.

“Go rest,” Levi tells his gaggle of brats wearily. “And if you’d be so kind as to pass on word that if anyone knocks on my door any time in the next… twenty four hours, that I’ll kill them slowly and painfully and then mail their remains to their families, that’d be swell.”

“Good lord,” Armin says, aghast.

“Will do,” Mikasa says with an absent wave. “Christa, come on, we’ll get some food, okay? Ymir’s in good hands, you don’t need to worry.” Mikasa tucks the short girl under her arm and Christa turns those wide sparkly blue eyes on Levi, gracing him with an angelic smile.

“Thank you for bringing her back to me.”

Levi doesn’t smile back. Holy shit. Something’s _off_ about this girl. Like she knows her lines, knows the words and the actions to portray, knows exactly what expression to hang on her face to suit the situation, but it’s like looking at a portrait or a picture in a book; a perfect reproduction, but with no life inside it.

“...No problem,” Levi says after an awkward pause. Yeah, there’s something seriously wrong with this girl.

But for the next twenty-four hours, it is _not_ Levi’s problem.

“Remember: knock on my door, lose a limb. Make sure everyone knows.”

“I thought it was a painful death followed by corpse desecration?”

“Depends how hard they knock.”

* * *

Levi showers with blissfully hot water, hot enough to make his still-healing burns sting with pain but not enough to make him lower the temperature so much as a half degree. He luxuriates in it, would stay they forever if he could, and he combs soap through his hair three times before he’s satisfied. After that, he dries off, scrapes his razor across his jaw - stubble looks terrible on him, it only grows in patches and makes him look like a try-hard prepubescent teenager - until his face is smooth once more. His expression is still drawn and haggard, eyes bloodshot from exhaustion, but at the very least he’s clean and that makes everything _so_ much more bearable.

He sets a pot of tea brewing and stands in front of the hearth, letting the heat from the fire dry the rest of the water from his limbs. He feels oddly cold, a chill settling into his bones that he can’t quite shift, but that’s more to do with the silence of the room than anything physically wrong with him.

He should put some salve on his burns. Some of the remaining blisters have burst and need to be treated before they become infected or scar. He has a pile of paperwork about two weeks overdue that he needs to finish off of they want any supplies for the next month. He’d meant to resupply their stock of silver needle while in Stohess, if he got the chance, but obviously he was a bit too busy for that. He could chance a trip into Calaneth, but it’s a bit to fraught out there right now. While they await a possible reprisal from the colossal and the armoured, they’re all on standby.

He has a lot he needs to do, but he just… Can’t.

Eren’s key sits hot against Levi’s chest, warmed from the heat of the water and now by the light of the fire. Levi needs to give it back to him, is overwhelmingly grateful that he can. Because it had been a lot closer than he’d let himself think. If he and Leonhardt had been an hour later… Eren would have been taken somewhere he had no hope of following.

That’s always going to be the risk, isn’t it? As long as Eren has this power, he belongs to humanity first. He’s the key to her survival. All Levi can do is follow, try to keep him safe, and hope that, at the end of it all, enough of Eren has survived that he and Levi can have some sort of life afterwards. He doesn’t care how long they get, as long as they get _something_.

He slips his fingers round the key, grips it until the metal bites into his palm. Whatever’s in that basement… He just hopes it’s something they can use. Something they can weaponise against the enemies he now knows live out there. And that was never meant to be a possibility. Everyone knows the story, about how titans appeared and wiped out all of humanity save for the few able to retreat behind the walls. But if that’s not true - and Levi has his doubts, it always seemed to fucking flimsy, too full of holes to be genuine - then what really happened a hundred years ago? Have they just been fed lies? All this time.

They’re sitting on one hell of a conspiracy, if that’s true. Hanji’s going to be ecstatic.

But more than that, though, it means this war is only just starting. And Levi will fight because he can’t do anything else, can’t just sit by while they lose more and more land to titans, more good people, more friends. Can’t sit here and do nothing while the threat of the armoured and colossal titans looms over them. He’ll fight and so will Eren and all of their friends and comrades.

They might even win.

But they’re going to lose so many in the process. Levi can _feel_ it.

He’s so tired already. So fucking tired. He doesn’t want to be here, sipping tea alone in the dark, wrestling with his mounting disquiet. He’s exhausted but he needs to be doing _something_ , even if it’s just-

The latch on the door clicks quietly open and Levi’s on his feet in an instant, knife snatched out from his waistband. He whirls, blade glinting, ready to lunge for whoever’s snuck in at well past midnight, even as his overworked body cries out for rest. He sinks low, ready to dive-

Eren pokes his head round the door, dark circles dig deep beneath his eyes, darker in the faint light from the fire at Levi’s back. He looks incredibly shifty, like he’s been caught doing something he shouldn’t, and that’s how Levi knows Eren’s made a daring escape from the infirmary while Mariska’s distracted.

“Fucking hell, Eren,” Levi says, raising from his battle-ready position and slipping his knife away. “Don't sneak up on me like that, I could’ve killed you.”

“Sorry,” Eren whispers, slipping quickly through the door and shutting it firmly behind him. “I had to give Mariska the slip.”

“Yeah, I figured. You really should be in the infirmary.”

“I’m fine,” Eren says. “Like, there's nothing wrong with me. See?” He waggles his fingers at Levi. “All healed. Had some water, a little food, then cleared out the minute her back was turned.”

“How’d you swing that?”

Eren grins. “Isabell helped.”

“Of course she did.” Levi shakes his head. “Well, if you’re all better, you can get your filthy ass into the shower. Dump your clothes, there’s no hope for them. They need to be ritually burned and the remains need to be prayed over, fucking hell. I can smell you from here.”

“Is there still hot water?”

“Yeah, plenty.”

Eren sags with relief, making a beeline for Levi’s washroom and shedding clothes as he goes. Levi lets him, isn’t going to murder him for leaving his clothes on the floor when Levi had expressly demanded he do so. He is, however, absolutely going to dispose of them as quickly as possible. Eren has barely any clothes as it is, having left Shiganshina with nothing except the clothes on his back that he’s long since outgrown. What he does have was provided at wall Rose’s mercy, and Levi wants to fix that as soon as possible but genuinely hasn’t had the time. Still, he’s able to slip into Eren’s quarters for a clean shirt and pants, dumps the soiled clothes in with the refuse to be burned, and hightails it back to his room with Eren’s clean clothes in short order.

Stepping back into his room, hearing the running water and Eren’s borderline pornographic groan of relief at finally being clean again unlocks something in Levi’s chest he hadn’t even known had been closed to him. The chill from before warms ever so slightly, and it takes everything in Levi not to follow Eren into the shower like some sort of clingy creep.

No, he doesn’t follow. He just hovers outside the door instead.

Much better.

He clears away as soon as the water shuts off, sits down at his desk like he hadn’t been loitering like some kind of weirdo, and Eren steps out, fluffy haired and practically sparkling, looking more human than he has in days.

“Holy shit,” he says, looking a little awestruck. “I never thought I’d love clean water as much as I do right now. I had like… Thirty layers of dirt on me. It was so bad.”

Levi hums, sits back in his seat, and Eren takes his damp self over to the bed, sprawls across it with a happy sigh, and though Levi grimaces at the thought of the damp patches Eren’s going to leave behind, he frits his teeth and says nothing because fuck if the kid doesn’t deserve a moment of lazy luxury after all he’s been through.

“It’s good to be home,” Eren murmurs. “Never thought I’d feel like that again, you know? Never thought I’d get to feel like I was coming home until we took back Shiganshina.”

“Yeah, I guess this dusty old castle does grow on you after a while.”

“Not the castle. You.”

Levi closes his eyes. Well, valiant effort, but literally _fuck_ everything else. He picks himself up with as much dignity as he can muster, takes himself over to the bed and settles down beside Eren primly. Eren looks up at him, slowly pushes himself upright, then yelps when Levi grabs him round the back of the neck and hauls him into an embrace that would probably crack the ribs of a lesser person. Eren just wraps his arms around Levi’s shoulders equally tight, though he’s mindful of the injury Levi’d almost forgotten was there.

“I’m so happy to see you,” Eren murmurs into Levi’s shoulder. “When I saw Annie, I thought… God, I thought something terrible had happened.” He nuzzles his face tighter against Levi’s neck, breath warm against Levi’s skin. “And then there you were. You looked so fucking good, Levi. Like… God, I don’t know. I saw you and… Everything was okay.”

It’s too much. The faith Eren has in Levi is too much, but Levi never wants him to lose it. Eren having faith in Levi makes him want to be _better_ , to be worthy of it. It’s too much because Levi doesn’t know how to handle it, only that he wants it, wants to deserve it.

“Someone had to come save your ass,” Levi says instead of everything he’s too much of a coward, too broken, to say. Things like _I love you_ , and _I’m sorry I was too late to stop them from taking you_ , and _you’ll never know how scared I was when I saw the lightning strike. I can’t lose you. Not you._

Eren pulls back, presses a disgustingly soft kiss to Levi’s forehead that makes his lungs burn. “I’m glad you did. We’re gonna talk about the fact that you enlisted another titan to do it, right? Should I be jealous?”

Levi snorts so hard he nearly inhales his own tongue. “Trust me, there's only room in my heart for one titanic pain in the ass and it’s sure as shit not Leonhardt.”

“What’s the deal with that, by the way? Not that I’m not grateful for the rescue, but last I saw her, she was being led away in chains.”

Levi grimaces. “It’s… A very long story. Nuanced. There’s… layers.”

“Well, we can shelve that for now, then,” Eren says. “You look so tired.” He traces his fingertips over the skin below Levi’s eyes, where the perpetual dark circles have basically scarred in at this point. “About as tired as I feel, really.”

Levi means to respond, he really does, but all he can do is lean into Eren’s touch like some sort of pining animal. It hasn’t even been that long since they last saw each other, not really, but there are two entire battles and a vicious rescue and escape between then and now, so it may as well have been years since the last time Levi had Eren this close.

“Eren,” Levi says, the only word that ever makes any fucking sense. The world is far larger than they ever thought possible, their enemies more powerful and yet still so shrouded in mystery. There’s so much they don’t know, more that they never will no matter how hard they try, and Levi doesn’t know where stands regarding most of it.

The single most uncomplicated thing in his life sits beside him now, skin warmed by the fire and his titan blood, hair twisting into damp curls as it dries, tired eyes bloodshot but bright all the same.

How is Levi meant to say any of that? He doesn’t have half the words to tell Eren even a quarter of what he feels. He himself doesn’t fully understand the breadth of it, so how can he possibly hope to communicate it to Eren?

Maybe he doesn’t have to. Maybe Eren already knows.

Levi slips the key off from around his neck and Eren bends his head forward so Levi can put it back where it belongs. Eren looks complete with the key back against his chest and Levi lays a palm over the metal, over Eren’s chest, feels the steady thrum of his heartbeat beneath.

Strong, reassigning, alive.

“You came for me,” Eren murmurs, laying a hand over Levi’s.

Levi swallows, tongue darting out to wet his lips. “Of course I did.”

Eren smiles, leans forward and rests his forehead against Levi’s, and for a moment the two of them just sit, breathing together, existing together, no compulsions, no burdens, just the two of them and this thing between them that burns brighter than any fire ever could. Having Eren here, safe, back where he belongs, feels like something has clicked back into place inside Levi’s very being, righting everything that was wrong. Not for one second did Levi let himself believe that Eren wouldn’t make it home. But now that Eren’s here, Levi lets those thoughts come, lets them wash over him and dissipate like mist, harmless and weak, inconsequential.

Eren’s home. And be it the castle or Shiganshina, it doesn’t matter. Hell, it could be underground and Levi would call it home in a heartbeat if Eren were there too.

It was never meant to be like this. People like Levi, they’re meant to be alone. Alone, no one can hurt you, alone, you don’t ever have to worry about losing the people you care about. But if ever Levi had found comfort in solitude, and even though he still prizes his rare moments of peace and quiet, Eren’s made a home for himself so complete in Levi’s heart, mind, fucking _soul_ , that the cold space left behind in his absence is somewhere Levi never wants to be.

How do you tell someone that? _I love you_ , is a start, but it really doesn't feel like enough. What’s worth more than a promise? Levi doesn’t know. He likely never will. But as always, Eren will never ask for more than Levi is prepared to offer or capable of giving.

“What’s that for?” Eren asks, pressing a finger to the furrow between Levi’s brows. “You look angry.”

“I’m not,” Levi says. “I’m really not. Just… It’s a lot.”

Eren nods seriously, one hundred percent in agreement. “Sleep?”

“God, please.”

It takes no effort at all on either of their parts to get comfortable, mainly because they’re both at the point of exhaustion where the moment the body is horizontal everything just screams _thank you!_ and stops. Eren’s chucking off more heat than a furnace so they don’t even need to bother with blankets, and since Eren’s fresh out the shower, all he has to do is shuck the towel, clean clothes left ignored on the end of the bed. Levi doesn’t care about any of it, doesn’t care about anything beyond the sound of Eren’s heartbeat in his ears, thumping steadily away beneath Levi’s cheek where it’s pillowed on his chest.

“I may never move,” Eren warns him around a yawn so wide that it begins in his mouth and ends up in Levi’s. “Just so you know.”

Levi’s mumbled response is garbled to his own ears. For once, his maddening insomnia is nowhere to be seen and sleep comes up to meet him like an absent old friend. It may not be dreamless, hardly ever is, but right now Levi could not give less of a damn. Eren’s palm is warm against his back, heartbeat steady beneath his head, and for now Levi can forget everything that’s waiting for them outside of this room.

For a while, at least.


End file.
